Pyromania
by Luigi4Life
Summary: Scout's curiosity will have fiery consequences after he tries to discover more secrets about his team's arsonist, the Pyro. After all, what's so bad about what's under that gas mask? Nobody knows, and the Pyro wants to keep it that way. Why? Well, between Scout and Pyro, sparks would fly.
1. A New Fire

**Pyromania**

**Hey! I don't know if you guys know this or not, but I love the PC game Team Fortress 2. It's pretty much one of the best games I've ever played! I like to choose the Pyro, who really likes fire. I also play as the Scout, who's really fast. ANYWAYS, I've always wondered what's behind Pyro's mask (a male,female, other?). Also, WE NEED MORE TF2 FANFICS! Let's see what happens when Pyro and Scout...well...start a fire! (I see what you did there :)**

**I'm typing this on my phone so sorry if something looks wrong. This first chapter will be in Scout's perspective.**

**I don't own the characters,Valve does!**

_Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brother? I hurt people_**.**

That was my motto. I didn't say it just to sound tough, because I am tough. I'm the fastest one out here. Nobody can catch me, and I'd like to keep it that way. Lately, I know I haven't been living up to my own personal standards. Dropping the intelligence, not pushing the cart hard enough, all that crap. I don't think anybody notices or cares, which is good for me. I've got a reputation to keep around here, and I'm not planning on losing it anytime soon. More or less, I know everybody here, and they know me. That old grandpa engineer _really_ knows me. I can't do crap without him giving me a life lesson about aiming correctly, or not drinking too much _Bonk!, or even _girls. I know he's just trying to help but it's gonna be a long process before I even work up enough patience to listen to him. Everyone else seems stable, except for Demoman. I ain't saying that he's a total phsyco, it's just that he's always drunk and,well, doing unspeakable stuff (if you know what I mean). I've got everyone else figured out, I know their personalities and accents too. Well, I guess nearly everybody. It's just that one guy, or maybe girl, with the heavy, black gas mask on. The gear on 'em looks like it's dragging them down a bit. I watch him/her play with matches before they go to bed, or at least I can see the light from it from my dorm room. All I've heard from it is muffled cries, laughs, and whatever else. That suit brings out the curves on 'em too...maybe it is a chic! If it is, then she's mine! All the others probably wouldn't be her type anyways...man I gotta get more sleep...I've been called a player before but am I becoming one? Whatever gender it is, I only know that it's best friend is fire. Any kind of fire, from anywhere. He/she didn't even put its real name on the mercenary application. We just know it by one name:

**Pyro**.

"Ah, you are interested in ze Pyro, no?" Spy asked. Out of all the people in the station, Spy had to ask me that. I honestly didn't even know if it was truly him or not, thanks to his stupid little disguise kit. If you wanna sneak around everywhere, then you should have the skill to do it without help!

"How'd you know that I was thinking about him? Or her." I said.

"I didn't know just before you told me," the Frenchie said. Man was I stupid then. That guy was a freakin' magician it seemed.

"Ah, I was just kidding, my rough friend. You have seemed so deep in thought, though. Plus, everyone wonders about ze Pyro. No surprise." He lighted a cigar, giving me his "reassuring" nod.

_Never share your thoughts with Spy, _I told myself. Or with anyone for that matter. I nodded back, but with a straight face.

Later that day I found myself laying in my bed, after an Intelligence battle at 2Fort. I always imagined what Pyro thought of that map. There was somewhat clean water down in the sewers that made up about a third of the map. She must've been nervous...she couldn't use her flame thrower underwater. And what if she couldn't switch to her axe in time? Back to the respawn room for her.

I'm calling it a girl again aren't I...I'm just so sure that it's a female...I just gotta make sure though. And if she is,well, we might let some flames fly if you know what I mean!

Today is the day I've always hated. Yeah, it's Saturday and I guess that's a good day to relax, but definitely not today. Every two months or so, the team has to get like a physical from Medic. Now, I'd normally ditch it since I don't want some random guy touching my balls and stuff, but this is my first chance to find out Pyro's gender. If it's a guy, then screw this mess. I'm straight. But if it's a girl...well you already know.

"Ain't no need to be *hic* nervous laddy," Demoman told me in line, "We've all got da same kinda crotch *hic* here..heh heh..."

He was drunk again. No surprise.

"Ze Scout! Get in zere please! I must go quickly today!" Medic called. I still took my sweet time walking over there, though. But as soon as I walked in, my heart nearly killed itself. No, Medic wasn't naked, and nobody else was in there but him, at least that's what I thought. By the one-toilet bathroom there was a coatrack that I hadn't paid much attention to until now. Definitely now. Why? Well because on that rack there was two things hanging there.

A black gas mask, and a flame-retardant suit.

I'm not even going to tell you what happened between me and Medic in that room. Like I said, I'm a straight guy, but it sure felt like I was "going to the other side". Anyways, you'd be blushing like mad if I told you, and I don't wanna be responsible for it.

What I did see was the shadows of Pyro doing something in the bathroom. Nothin' gross, just probably washing up. I still couldn't tell whether it was a male or female though. The bathroom door never opened during the whole time I was in that room. I didn't see Pyro waiting in line either.

My heart's racing now. I'm pretty sure it's a girl now, so I'm going to start calling her one. If she wasn't a girl she'd be in line with the rest of us guys. It'd be too awkward for Medic to examine a girl Pyro, even for all that he's seen.

I've decided to do some research. I'm not a stalker or anything, this is just one of those things that I'm really curious about. I'm normally not like this, though. Hopefully my plan will work like magic. And if not, then I'm screwed. _Very_ screwed.

But besides trying to solve this whole gender mystery, I've discovered something about myself. And gee, this has never happened to me before. That fire-lover has done something to me, without her knowing it, and I think I like it.

_Like she loves fire, I think Iove her._

**LOL! Scout's in love! I smiled just typing this out. Well, I've played a lot of TF2 as a part of my "research" and this is what I came up with. Chapter 2 will be up soon!**

**"I'm running circles around ya!" **


	2. More Sparks Revealed

**Hello!Thanks to all of the followers and viewers! I saw that I had views as far as in Norway! Haha, yeah. Anyways, let's see what Scout is up to! Still in his perspective, by the way. I don't own anyone! -Contains mild sexual content-**

****flies away****

Alright, so here's what I got. Everybody's application is stored in the vault in the basement, along with the previous mercenaries'. Ms. Pauling, the Administrator's assistant, would never stop killing me if she caught me going through 'em. It would be weird if I asked her to open it so I could look at my own, as an excuse to get in. Nah, that ain't gonna work. I gotta come up with something else. What if I just walked up to Pyro and yanked off her mask? No, I'd get burned alive and she could get kicked for betrayal to the team, even if it's only me. Well, there's only one way out of this one, and I don't even know if it'll go right.

"Humph hmm humm mmph," I heard her speak through her mask.

"Translation? Demoman is such a druggy," Sniper said.

"That ain't true boy! I'm as sober as a new penny!" Demoman said.

"That makes no sense,mate. Yer only sober now, aren't ya?" Sniper said.

"At least I don't through my own piss at people! That's just the lowest of the low laddy! It's disrespectful to ya team!"

"Huddah huddah huh!" she said. Maybe she was trying to stop the fight. Time for me to step in.

"Hey hey hey!" I said,sounding retarded. "Anybody wanna go shooting with me? It looks like you guys need to cool off. Of course, not with piss or beer!" Pyro laughed. It was working!

"Thanks mate," Sniper replied,"but I'm gonna go call my folks. They miss me out back." He left to go to his dorm.

"And I'm- I'm gonna go play with my *hic* bombs sticky...heh heh...sticky like my co-"

"Well alright then!" I interrupted. He must've took a sip of his "fun juice" when our backs were turned. The dirty animal.

"Mmmph hmm hum mmph, mcout!" I swore I heard her say my name. She stood up to grab her flame thrower and flare gun in her bag, and I gotta admit, she's got curves. Not those little cartoony curves, but some hot curves though! How could have she got in without anyone, well, "noticing" anything? I sure did, but maybe it's just the wide gear she's wearing. Either way, DAMN!

"Home freakin' run!" I said, launching a random baseball into the sunset. It was pretty much evening then and it started to get colder. I could care less about the weather though.

"Thmm!" I heard from Pyro's mask. She launched a flare gun shot into the air, and it hit the baseball on the spot and set it on fire.

"Whoah! Nice shot!" I said. I was really amazed. She laughed again, much to my pleasure. We sat down and watched the baseball land on top of our rivals' building, then burn out. Somehow, it grew a bit hotter where we were. Maybe she was using some kind of arsonist magic that no one knew about? Then, Pyro began to zip down the front of her suit. Now she was just teasing me.She didn't go down all the way, just enough to keep me entertained if you know what I mean. Heh, yeah. She looked straight forward but seemed as if she wanted my attention, and lots of it.

Well now, I'm sure it's a girl, and what a way to find out too!

"Zet es getting cold out zhere, you should come en so you don't get sick! I have treated enough illnesses today," Medic suddenly appeared.

"MEDIC!" Heavy called randomly from the back rooms.

"Ja Heavy?" He responded.

"I- I need you!"

"Coming! You zee, Scout? Everybody requires my assistance!" He jogged back to get to Heavy. Assistance my butt! He probably just couldn't find his little "sandvich."

Luckily, Pyro's chest was turned away during this whole time, or else chaos would've came along. Now, she wasn't completely "bare up there", but you get the point. She was hot, even with her gas mask still on. Enough said!

A couple minutes later, she muffled something else and zipped up her suit. By this time I was sweating because the heat had gone up so freakin' much. How come Medic didn't notice how hot it had gotten? Maybe she just wanted me to feel hot.

Hot around her, heck yeah I was.

She went back inside, giving me a nice backside view. I'm not a perv or anything, but man, she was asking for it! I went in a bit later, straight to the showers. Usually I stayed up late until grandpa Engineer suggests that I get some sleep, but tonight I turned in early by myself. I had a lot to think about.

_Does she like me?_

_Does anybody else know about her?_

_How old is she? What's her name?_

_How did she get into fire?_

"Scout, zhat bulge in your pants is giving me a dirty impression of you. Please stop it." I wanted him to shut up. I didn't even want him to open his mouth in the first place. That damn Spy. Like I could control my body every minute of every day.

"Well I think you have a guilty pleasure in your Spy Crab taunt, dummy." I said, slowly getting pissed off.

"Très désagréable! How foul of you to say so! I am a young, sophisticated gentleman! Never have I done such inappropriate things for my own sick liking!" He over dramatically said.

"That's sad but true partner, is something getting you all aroused up?" Great. More stupid questions.

"No Engie, I'm fine."

"Well listen here, bud. Medic is taking us all out to dinner tonight in celebration of him not having to stitch someone's head back to their body for a whole month. Poor guy. That's quite the reason, but I'm in it for the food." He said.

I feel another plan coming up.

Since today was our day off, I went to go practice pitching and hitting baseballs until it was time to get ready for the dinner. Everybody had to wear tuxedos, which I hated because sometimes it seems like I had the limpest body there. On the other hand, this must suck badly for Pyro. How was she gonna, well you know, look like a guy?

When I came back from what I was doin', I got yelled at from all sides. Everybody was already dressed and either looked bored or busy. Pyro, who was wearing bulky white gloves, sat at the wooden table trying to make sure she looked masculine enough. I can tell she did something to her chest area and might've put something down her pants...just in case. That's pretty brave of her.

"Private Scout! This is an order! Dress yourself accordingly within 10 minutes or you will be punished beyond your will! Maggot!" Soldier screeched.

"You should 'ave been here half hour ago, little man! Don't make us late!" Heavy told me, Medic adjusting his bow tie.

"The clock starts now Scout! Go go go!" Soldier barked again, shoving me to my dorm.

I didn't bother to take a shower because I wasn't smelly or dirty, and I'd take too long and get my throat flipped inside out by Soldier. Medic handed me my tux with a smirk because he knew that I hated dressing up. I came out five minutes later, all dressed but my hair still ragged. I still didn't care.

"Excuse me young man! What in the bloody hell do you think you're doing!? You are to show respect to your teammates all day every day! You have exactly 1 minute to brush your hair to its neatest position and meet us outside and be seated in the van! This is unacceptable! Now move maggot!" Soldier snuck up on me again. He's kind of like a more aggressive version of my Ma.

"What? That's bullcrap! I had five minutes left!" Now I was making a scene.

"Thirty seconds and not a word more!" He yelled again. I could here Pyro giggling at me through her mask.

I ran to the bathrooms but couldn't find a brush. Well, I'm screwed. I just flattened it down with my hand and sped back to the van.

"5, 4, 3, 2.." Soldier counted. I landed in my seat and put on my seatbelt right on time. Luckily, I got to sit next to Pyro, but on my other side was Spy. If I did anything out of my usual lines, he'd know that something was going on.

The whole car ride was awkward. The restaurant was like a freakin' hour away from the base, and Medic talked about his doves the whole time. Archimedes here, Archimedes there, blah blah blah!

"So, what's this place like?" I asked.

"It ez the most beautiful place of eating! Better zhan most of our mother's cooking!" He said.

"I'll just have to visit Scout's mother again to zee how she cooks! Hahaha bwahahaha! Ah, brilliant." Spy said. I don't even want to bring up that situation again.

"Shut up Spy! You ain't even my dad!" That idiot would never stop talking!

"We are here!" Medic sang, not a moment too soon.

I climbed out of the car, walking fast to the entrance. What a fun night this will be.

We sat in the middle of the diner, which made me feel weird. I didn't like being stared at, unless it's like a group of cute girls or if I'd won something.

The first thing I noticed is the smile through Pyro's mask. She was either enjoying the atmosphere or thinking about something nice. It was only a short amount of time before I noticed that she was looking at the fire pit in the middle of the large table. Heh, I'd expect that. I kind of felt bad for her when she had to point out what she wanted on the menu to the waiter, since she wasn't going to take off her mask. More importantly, how was she gonna eat?

The food took awhile to come, but that wasn't a surprise coming from a place with snobby rich people. I rubbed my feet against the red velvet carpet, then touched Medic. Well that was smart. I shocked him a little, and he gave out a small gasp.

"Um...Übercharge?" I said. Close enough. He nodded, then went back to his conversation with Heavy. Anybody could tell that I was obviously bored. It was a good thing that the food came just after that. Now it was Pyro's turn to feel the tension.

She signaled me something, like she wanted me to go to her. How? She was sittin' on the other side of the table. It would be too obvious! After a few more hand motions, I realized that she wanted me to create a distraction so she could eat her food without taking her mask off. No wonder I never win at charades.

Alright, alright. How was I gonna do this? Well, the fire pit was about 5 feet away, so I couldn't really switch the knob from where I was sitting. I do know another way, though.

"Um, I'll be back. Don't touch my food Spy." I got angry just talking to him.

"No promises, mon ami," he responded, smiling oddly.

I pretended to head to the men's room, but slipped around the corner into the diner's kitchen. I found a white apron and tied it around my waist so I looked like a waiter. Pretty cheap, but still better than what I could've dressed up as. Now, I had to make it past the chefs.

I just walked through normally, acting as if I were strolling in a park. I grabbed a jar of pickles just in case. If Demoman were here, and drunk, he'd take this opportunity to make a dirty joke. Hopefully he's not getting too tipsy out there. I found an electronic panel that seemed like it could control a fire pit. What do ya know, I was right.

I turned it up to its max limit, and hoped nobody burned to death out there.

"FIRE!" Medic called with his accent. Everybody cleared the table, except Pyro of course. They all ran out of the restaurant, including the cooks and a bunch of other fancy people. I saw Pyro quickly chew her food while turning on the fire alarm. I ran out to help her, until I realized one thing:

_She didn't have her suit on. She'd burn just as easily as anyone else. There was no respawn outside of the station's range. I have to save her._

"Come on!" I yelled. We met each other's eyes, and the flaming world around us seemed to stop as many tables burned. We couldn't go through the regular entrance, it was already enclosed with flames. Instead, we broke the glass in a wide window as our way out. Now we had to do one thing:

_jump._

I woke up in my dorm room bed, with a cast around my wrist. I didn't break my whole arm? Nice!

The first thing, or rather person, I thought about was Pyro. Was she okay? This is my fault. I could've came up with a better distraction. I've caused lots of money on damage, and possibly a hurt friend. I ran out my door, past Demoman and Sniper playing cards, and into Pyro's room. Her room was strange, it had a lot of corners and twists in it. It might've been the largest room out of all of ours too. Her door was wide open, so I walked in.

"Pyro? It's me, Scout! You know, the grass- grows-birds-fly-and-sun-shines guy?" This was my greatest fail at flirting ever.

I could of swore that out of the corner of my eye, I saw her with her mask on peek out of one of her many corners to check if I was alone. Suddenly, she came out of the opposite corner, and all I can say is

Oh .My. Gosh.

**aaaaawwwwww 3 **

**What did Scout see? Only I know (or if you guessed correctly)!**

**You can PM me your ideas of what you think will happen next! The correct guesser gets a shout-out! (Or maybe followed!) **

**Bye!**


	3. A Hot Flame

**Update time! So last time, we were left with Scout discovering the "real" Pyro, and then, BOOM! Cliffhanger! Hahaha! Well in this chapter, I'm going to explore with different perspectives (ex: in italics, from someone else, etc.) You'll probably see this later into the chapter though. Thanks for all the reviews! Also, this chapter might be a bit short. Or not. I don't own anyone!**

In front of my eyes was the most gorgeous girl I've ever seen. And that says something, based on all the chicks I've spotted.

She had silky, red hair that went just past her perfectly rounded shoulders. Her face looked soft and smooth, and actually a little innocent. Her eyes seemed almost black, but probably just a dark brown. She wore a white tank top with short black shorts that revealed her long, sexy legs. Dang, she was pretty. She was barefoot, but she could've been in a bikini and I still would've been staring at her. She ran to the door and closed it, just in case anyone came in. It was then that I noticed the bandage wrapped around her forearm. I knew that was my fault.

"H - hi," I said, messing up already.

"Hi Scout." Her voice was amazing. I just smiled, waiting for her to make the next move.

"Um, well thanks for saving me earlier tonight. I forgot that I didn't have my suit on, and everything seemed to go really fast with all the flames and everything," she spoke.

"Oh, no problem! Gotta love helping arsonists, right?" Strike two for me...

"I guess so," she stopped to smile. The greatest smile in, like EVER in fact!

"I never got a chance to tell you more."

"More about what?"

"About me! I've watched everyone through my mask, I'm surprised nobody noticed anything strange about me. Until you, of course." Her voice was still sweet, but I didn't know if she was mad or not.

"Well, I just happened to notice you and your flame thrower and everything..." I felt myself blush. I never blush! I knew I had noticed way more than a flame thrower on her.

"I'm Keira, and I'm probably the youngest one here. I'm only 23." That's fine with me!

"Really? I'm 23 too!" The awkward moment began.

"Cool, is your family close by? They must be proud of you, being so brave to join this group and everything," she said.

"My mom lives in Boston with my seven brothers. Ha! How's that for a family? What about you?" Things were starting to go better, until she gave me a sad look. It seems like the fire had drained out of her.

"It's a long story. I played with fire my whole childhood, every candle and everything. It was a habit that I had even when I turned 20, when I was eligible to sign up for Mann Co. Mercenary team or whatever. My mom hated fire, let alone me. She wasn't a very caring mother, and my habit only made it worse. S- she killed herself when I was 19. I don't know if it was from my obsession with fire,or if she just hated me. On the other hand, my dad loved me a bit more. He was my best relative. He never tried to stop my pyromania though. He said it was an _art_. I honestly think that he really didn't love my mom much. I don't know why, but eventually my fire obsession drove him insane, and he started going on crazy killing sprees. He's in jail now, until he dies. That's my situation."

She looked as if like she was gonna cry, but she was too strong to. I walked over to her, nervously of course, and gave her a hug. I then looked in her eyes.

"You're so strong, emotionally. Your talent is an art. It's beautiful, and there's almost nothing wrong with it, especially on the battlefield." Was I heading in the right direction? "You sound so sweet for all you've been through," I blushed even harder. It would be impossible for her not to notice now.

"Thanks, I appreciate it," I could feel her slender fingers tickling my back. Being stupid, I pulled away from the hug.

"I'm really sorry about your arm, I didn't want to hurt you or anything. No one should ever want to hurt ya, in fact." My best attempt at flirting?

"It's okay, I'm still fine. We should do something, maybe tomorrow after control points, if you want to." It was her turn to blush.

"Of course, anything ya want!" I said, sounding as desperate as ever.

"Okay, well I'll think of something during the battle! Of course I'll still be focusing though!"

"That's great, I'll see you in the morning then!" I made my way to the door.

"And Scout, um, I don't mean to be secretive, but could you not let anybody know about me?" I wouldn't tell anybody about her if it meant that I could date her for the rest of my life!

"Don't worry, I got ya!" She smiled, I always like that. I came over to her again, and brushed the hair out of her face. I backed up a little, shyly.

"Goodnight, flame." I was hoping she got my joke. Good for me that she did!

"Goodnight, speedy." She smiled nicely, and then the unthinkable happened.

Keira walked closer to me, and the room felt like it was on fire again. Time seemed to stop as I felt her warm breath trail down my neck, and as soon as I knew it, her soft lips were dancing on my cheek. A chilling feeling went through my body, like I was a sentry and had been sapped. I'm pretty sure she took notice of the movement in my pants during the moment. Embarrassing, but oh well!

I walked backwards out of the room, waving a love struck goodbye. She waved back, her skin glowing. I left the room and closed the door behind me. My first thought was:

_Yyeeesssss! I'm getting la- uh, I mean a date!_

I got ready for our battle as usual. We were scheduled for control points at Dustbowl. I noticed that Keira has helped our team a lot, especially on this map. We had an hour to get ready, then we got into the van. Medic's van, to be specific. We were loading up, and I was just the last one to sit down until I noticed that Keira wasn't on yet. Well, let's just say that I acted as if the world was ending.

"Wait! Yo I said hold up a sec! We gotta get Pyro! Don't drive yet doc!" I busted open the car door and ran back to the locker rooms, only to run into Keira and be knocked on the ground. We hit each other so hard that the impact pretty much slammed us down. As if the scene wasn't bad enough, Spy just had to start laughing his head off at us.I could hear her groan under her mask, and I apologized. It was quiet enough so only she could hear my voice. I stood up and held out my hand so she could get up too. We raced back to the van, where everybody was staring at us like we were naked.

"We're ready," I said awkwardly. Medic turned around slowly and began to drive as everyone else followed suit.

I'll just come right out and say it, this round was crap for the other team. We shut 'em out! Before the match started, I was the first one waiting at the gate until the countdown was over. Pyro came over to me, and motioned me good luck. I nodded, and before I knew it, the gates were released and I was the first one running out. Suddenly, I felt a slight but soothing sting from my back. I turned around, ready to fire, but I realized that it was just a Medic charging me. I saw electric sparks fly across his body, then mine. I felt about five times stronger and faster. It's the Übercharge.

I pounced on 3 other enemies and shot them dead with my trusty Scattergun. Medic tried his best to keep up with me, but there was no way that I was going to slow down. I jumped on the first point, and captured it with no sweat.

It wasn't much later until the last control point was claimed by our team. And guess who captured it?

Keira flamed everyone like it was her job. I guess that _was _her job, technically. She wasn't even charged up, all she did was ambush the sentry gun and a random engineer guarding it. That was all it took. I ran in after her and stood on the point while reloading. The announcer declared our team the winners, then basically her and I went on a killing spree after that. I love the humiliation when the other team looses their weapons.

That's right. We killed the whole other team. Together. I don't know if that's called romance, but it's gonna be the closest we can get out on the battlefield.

After a couple more games, the team headed back to the base to follow our usual routine. Shower, lunch, or whatever you wanted to do. Pyro never came to the regular showers before, but I know why now of course. But why was she in the bathroom in Medic's office last week? Did he know that she was in there? If Medic knows and Keira doesn't, then she could be in a crapload of trouble. I gotta talk to Medic.

I went to his office after my shower and in my usual relax clothes. Just a red baseball tee shirt and black shorts, matched with white socks that would get dirty within an hour. I walked into the place, ready for anything.

"Do you need something Scout?" He asked. I closed the door.

"Uh, hey doc. Remember last week during the check ups?"

"Yes I do, anything you still have questions about?"

"No, well yeah. But it ain't not about me." He gave me a curious look.

"Go on..." Here it comes.

"Did you notice anybody in your bathroom on that day? They weren't exactly in line outside the office you know?" I tried to be as non-specific as possible.

"Ah yes, it was Pyro in there! I knew that. She was in there the whole time. I mean- he was!" He had a nervous look. I could read him like a book.

"It's okay, I already know about her. You can tell me anything." Trust no one? Forget about that, for now at least.

"Okay, but you must tell not one soul! We could both be in trouble, and maybe her too! Speaking of her, how do you know her so well?"

"That depends. How did you know that I knew her well?"

"By zhis conversation I can just tell!" He said.

We were getting nowhere with this.

"Well, uh, I kind of kissed her a little, or she, um, rather kissed me..." What was I thinkin'?

"Ooohhhh I zee what's going on zhere, my friend!" Great. I got him all fired up.

"Nah, it's not like _that_. Let's just keep our secrets to ourselves alright? This little talk never happened, for the sake of our jobs."

"Understood Scout," He nodded.

"Good. Thanks." I left the room, just like that. Nothing much, really.

I met Keira by her room to see if she had thought of something for us to do tonight. She spotted me and took off her mask, after checking that nobody was around.

"What's up?" She asked.

"I wanted to see if you thought of something that we could do tonight."

"Oh yeah!" She remembered, like her life depended on it. "Um, I have a feeling that if we went to a restaurant that people would recognize you, then start tracking bus down like were celebs or somethin' like that. So, I have a secret spot that I like to go to at night sometimes, and I wanted to take you there!" She really wanted me to go with her, didn't she?

"Sounds cool, but how are we gonna get out of here though?"

"We can pretend to go shooting! Seems easy enough."

"At night? People are gonna wonder where we're going and all..."

"In that case we'll have to leave right now!" She put on her mask and grabbed my wrist. We ran to the entrance and I managed to snatch my scattergun off of the rack. After about 10 minutes we were behind some old factory building that no one seemed to give a crap about. She took off her mask and suit, revealing her black booty shorts and a white girly shirt that I forgot the name of. Should I tell her that Medic knows about her? It could help her, but hurt me.

"So what are we doing?" I asked, half patient.

"I don't just work with fire..." She began.

_So you're a hooker? Just bang guys and run? _That was my first thought.

"I am fire, in a way." What came after that was amazing.

**Aaaaannnndddd stop! Another cliffhanger *watches readers rage quit*! Don't worry, I'll update soon. R and R! Feel free to guess what will happen next!**


	4. Burning On

**Hi! Nice reviews! I'm gonna cut it short so we can get to the story! I don't own anybody!**

Her body began to glow brightly in a mix of red and orange. She slowly spun around with her eyes closed as small ambers began to rise from the ground. They grew larger, and so did my interest. The sky seemed as if it was filled with smoke, but I didn't smell any. Instead I smelled this vanilla-like scent. The ambers began to stick to my body and I tried to wipe them off. They stayed on. When I looked up, Keira had turned into a stream of fire. She made beautiful designs in the sky with her "new" body. She crashed back down to the ground, but the whole impact was in slow motion! In the wall of fire, I saw her reflection and her face giving me a sexy look. The reflection disappeared and the fire turned into a spiral. There were elegant flames flying everywhere and it was heating up quickly. It didn't bother me much, I knew it was just for the mood. The spiral crawled up to me and she turned halfway-human again. Her legs were replaced with a stream of fire. She smiled at me, and I smiled back. I didn't know what to say! She grabbed me gently, then wrapped around me in her fire form. It didn't hurt, it actually felt good. I mean,like, _really _nice! It was also cool because I wasn't getting burned. She took me up in the air on a fire magic carpet, or whatever you call it.

"Your amazing," I said. My cheeks were burning from the heat and how lovestruck I felt.

"It's my secret," she said. We settled in a tree and sat down beside each other.

"How do you do that? I love it..." I asked.

"I guess I was born with it! I don't know if it's good or bad though."

"It's a good thing! It's an art. Whatever your mom said about you, she was wrong. You're beautiful, and so is fire." I think I've finally said the right thing.

"Thank you," she glowed fiercely and her hair seemed static. "I like you too."

I felt the ambers attach to my skin again, then she came closer. I came closer to her, and we kissed passionately. Her flames engulfed us, making the moment better. I wrapped my arms around her lower waist as she put hers around my neck. When I opened my eyes, my lips were still mixing with hers. All I saw was fire surrounding me, nothing else. After about five more minutes of making out, she whisked me away in a fiery bowl. We went underground and she regained her human form.

"Wow," she said. "You're a really nice kisser." She blushed and smiled.

"Ah, all in a day's work." She laughed as I followed her to wherever she was heading. We came up to a green ladder in the unusually clean sewers.

She climbed up the ladder, me just right under her. All of a sudden she slipped and knocked us both off of the ladder. I landed on my back and she landed on top of me. I rose up a little and saw that she wasn't moving.

Oh. Crap.

I felt her forehead and called out her name.

"Keira? Keira can ya hear me?!" I tried not to panic. I also noticed that she had left her suit back at her special hideout. I ran back with her draped over my arms and grabbed the suit. Then, I jogged back to the green ladder and started to climb up.

I really needed to start working out more.

Surprisingly, the ladder lead to a floor entrance that lead to her room. I gently laid her on the bed and got the hair out of her face. I closed her door and got a wet, cold towel to put on her forehead. Low and behold, the intoxicated Demoman was passed out and sitting in the hallway. Being careful not to step on him, I went back to Keira's room and put the towel on her head. She woke up about ten minutes later.

"Scout?" Her voice sounded a bit weak. My back was turned so I went over to her.

"Hey are you alright? You kinda fell off the ladder." I kept my voice soft.

"Could you open my window?" I did what she said.

"So, I wanted to tell you about that ladder I tried to go up. It leads to here."

"I know," I said. "I carried you up here! Don't worry, you're not heavy or anything."

"I left my suit! I have to go get it or else-"

"I got that too," I said, holding up the suit and mask.

"Oh, thanks! You're really helpful. I don't know why the others think you're so cocky, there's a different side of you." I have an idea of why they call me cocky, but it wouldn't be appropriate to mention that here.

"Thanks, you should get some rest. We have special training tomorrow don't we?"

"Yeah, I hope I'll be okay for then." She sounded a bit stronger.

"You'll be fine, I bet. Plus, we're gonna be on the same teams! Offense, remember?"

"That's right! I think the Administrator will be watching us though. And Ms. Pauling will be there too. This doesn't happen very often, so we've gotta do our best. I remember doing this a couple months ago...they line us up by our position and they ask us to do some shooting and stuff. Then we get in our position groups and go against the others." She explained it better than I could.

"Hopefully it goes like that," I said. "You need anything else?"

"I'm okay, just some rest for tomorrow and I'll be okay."

"That's good, I'll see you later then. Goodnight!"

"Goodnight." The truth was that it was only about 8:00, but she had to go to sleep sooner or later.

"Oh wait," I began. I should let her know about the whole Medic thing. I came close to her, my voice quiet. "Remember the last team physical?"

"Yes..." She sounded as if I was about to question her body.

"Well, I asked Medic about him knowing if someone was in the bathroom. He said he knew it was you, and he also said that he knew you were a girl. Don't be mad, I just wanted to let you know so you could defend yourself if you had to." There was a long silence in between us. She was thinking about what I had just said, and I could tell.

"I didn't know that," she said, and I knew that I had just helped her. "Now I have to watch my back." Now she was concerned.

"Don't worry, I don't think it's against the rules or anything."

"But the Administrator is a sneaky little bastard, she'll make up any stupid rule in a matter of seconds."

"I made Medic swear that he wouldn't tell anyone, just for you."

"Oh that's sweet," she wasn't being sarcastic. "Let's see how long we can keep this up though."

"Exactly. Well, get some sleep! I can't have you spy-checking the wrong people tomorrow!"

"Haha, sure. Goodnight Scout, thank you for being such a great friend."

"You too. Goodnight." I waved goodbye and left the room as she began to take off her top.

I got a glimpse, just a glimpse! Nothin' more and nothing less!

_Little did Scout and Pyro know that they had been watched by Sniper, who was hidden in his usual spot where anyone could be easily shot from a distance. He'd witnessed everything, from the fire show to Scout running back to get Pyro's suit. He'd saw a red-headed girl on Scout's back. He'd saw her take her gas mask off. He now knows the true identity of the Pyro._

_He didn't know whether to tell someone else or not. It technically wasn't a rule for a female to become a part of Mann Co. Mercenaries, it was just unusual. He decided to let Scout know about what he saw._

Sniper stroked his Kukiri knife slowly as he stressed over when to tell Scout about what he saw. She looked like a nice girl, especially for Scout. Sniper knew that Scout liked young girls like that.

"Ugh," he groaned. Such a decision.

"Something bother you big guy?" Heavy randomly walked into the main room.

"Nothing for your ears mate," Sniper tried to be polite but he hated it when people got into his business.

"Alright then. No being sad though." He left to go elsewhere.

_Tomorrow is the special training, so I'll wait until then. _Sniper thought_. _He went off to his dorm to do whatever else he felt like doing for the rest if the evening.

Today was the special training day. Everyone had to be ready by a certain time, 10 'o clock to be exact. There was gonna be a car waiting for us. We didn't know the map, but at least it was only our team that was doing the training today. Strangely I was the first one dressed and ready in the main room. Everyone important was gonna be watching us perform our skills. Even the janitor was attending! I started stretching out, only to be greeted by Sniper.

"Morning mate," he said, holding a cup of coffee.

"Oh what's up?" I replied, still stretching.

"Nothing much, I just wanted to tell you something."

"What is it?" I felt that this would have to do with Keira.

"Well last night I was doin' my usual shooting and all," he seemed nervous. "I don't wanna pry too much so you don't have to give me a full answer."

"Out with it, will ya?" Here it comes...

"I saw you and some girl last night. I saw the little fire show and everything. Also, I saw Pyro's flame suit. I was wondering if...you know..."

"I'm not dating her," I plainly stated. I know I had just gave away Pyro's cover, but I couldn't have anyone starting up rumors over her and me. "Don't tell anyone alright? Too many people already know. I'm supposed to be defending her, and I'm failing so far."

"Secret's safe with me, mate. No rules say it's wrong anyways." Finally, someone who I could hopefully trust.

"Thanks." All of a sudden, the whole crew came from their rooms, ready for the training.

"I hope zhat you are sober, Mr. Demo!" Medic said. "Alcohol is very unhealthy."

"Yeah laddy! Couldn't of felt better on the day of the training!" Demoman replied. About time he's not all tipsy. We piled into the car that was waiting for us outside, with the Administrator and Ms. Pauling already in it. We rode to what looked like a campsite, a ghetto one at most. The Administrator began to drag on about who knows what. I hated her voice.

"Gentlemen, I expect nothing but your best today. Do not disappoint me. We are going to start with the Support team. Then Defense, and lastly offense." She looked at her clipboard to check the order. "Medic, you're up first. As an exception, you'll be paired with Heavy due to your secondary item."

Pyro was the very last person to be tested. She aimed carefully and missed a few, but she got the hang of using the new flare gun she was given. After more tests, the Admin spoke to her.

"So you like fire, don't you?" She said. Trouble was coming. Keira nodded slowly.

"I'm glad we have someone like you. I want you to test a new item that Mann Co. purchased recently. It's a sort of a flame thrower, but it hasn't been tested before. Come with me." She motioned for Pyro to go with her. They went somewhere behind the building, and I heard a metal door squeak and close. Everybody watched suspiciously as that happened. I went over to Ms. Pauling, holding a newly made pistol.

"Hey miss," I greeted.

"Wait! Easy, easy. Is the safety on?" I turned the safety on the gun.

"Umm, now it is."

"Okay, talk." I had to be careful with my words. It seemed as if it was only me and her now, since everybody else had started chatting. We were all done with training now.

"C- could you keep an eye on Pyro and the Administrator please?" She finally looked up from the clipboard that she was holding for the Admin.

"Why? Is there something you are concerned about?"

"Yeah."

"Look, I know how to Administrator can be sneaky. I keep an eye on her too. I'll make sure that nothing seems suspicious. But on one condition."

"What?" We were getting somewhere with this.

"If trouble comes along, then you are completely responsible for it. I need this job." It didn't sound like a fair deal to me, but at this point I'll do whatever works.

"Deal." I held out one of my bandaged hands for her to shake. The crew then gathered into a black car that came for is. Ms. Pauling went into the room where the Admin and Pyro went. Back at the base, all I could think about was Pyro. We'd find out our rank in a couple hours, but it'd seemed much longer than that.

When the time came, I woke up from my nap and followed Heavy into the main room. I couldn't see crap with that dude in the way. We lined up, and stared at the giant television in front of us. The rankings came up soon after.

Pyro still wasn't back by this time, so I was still concerned. Ms. Pauling didn't seem like the person to lie, but I hoped that Keira was still safe. When the rankings came up, I didn't know what to say.

Someone had cheated. No, not cheated. Whatever happened, it wasn't fair. Not for me, and it wouldn't be until I solved this new mystery.

**Woohoo another cliffhanger! Next chapie will be up soon!**


	5. Heating Up

**Hello! Like the story so far? It's time for P- P- P- Pyromania (lol)!**

The TV screen showed the regular scores. I had got third out of eight people, which isn't bad. What was bad was that there was _only_ eight people, instead of nine. Pyro's icon has been crossed out in red, and there were lines where her score should have been. She was at the very bottom of the screen too.

This doesn't make sense. Even though she missed a few shots, everybody was supposed to place somewhere. The Administrator could have taken her to train her more, but that doesn't seem reasonable. For her standards, at least.

"Aye, what happened to Pyro?" I asked. Spy looked at me curiously.

"And why are you so concerned?" He said. "I thought zhat you only cared about your own ranking, no?" Spy knew me well, and I would have only cared about my own if I didn't discover Keira. Medic and Sniper acted as if they knew nothing, avoiding the conversation. If I needed help, I knew that they'd know how to help me.

"We can never leave a soldier behind! Right, am I right?" Lamest excuse ever.

"That's right mate," Sniper agreed, putting his feet up on the table. "We are all as one here."

"Yes, yes that is true! We must stay together," Medic added on, pushing over Sniper's feet while sitting down.

"Well, remember zhat I am on nobody's side." Spy walked away, going wherever. Besides me, Medic, and Sniper, the others were watching our little scene the whole time.

"Are you going to get fire man from the boss lady, Scout?" Heavy asked.

"Might as well." I said. The truth was that I wanted to get there ASAP. I turned around. "Do you wanna come with me?" I asked Medic and Sniper.

"Yeah, got nothing else to do." Sniper answered.

"I will go in case Pyro will be needing medicine!" Medic said, putting a needle into his Medi gun.

"Thanks guys," I said. I wasn't about to ask anybody else. We got our stuff and left for the van. Somehow, out of freakin' nowhere, it started to drizzle.

"Are you sure you can drive in his rain, doc?" He was a bit, well, unstable.

"I am most sure of it." Sniper gave him a weird look, then looked at me.

"Back- seat driver, aren't ya?" He told me.

"Just makin' sure that we get there as quickly as possible." They knew that I was concerned for her.

"She your girlfriend yet?" Sniper teased again. "Such a player, Scout."

"Hey, hey, hey. I ain't at that base yet. I still got time."

"Of course, how could I forget! First base for you is anal. Hahahahahaha! Whew," he thought it was _so funny._

_"_Sniper..." I said darkly.

"Eh, no fighting you two! We are almost there." Medic was such a goody-goody.

"Fine. Just no more butt sex jokes and I'll be cool." That was Spy's thing, anyways. Medic parked his car in the back of the building that Pyro was taken into. I got out carefully and armed my pistol and baseball bat.

"What do ya need all them weapons for? It's just ladies in there!" Sniper said.

"You'll never know what you'll run in to." I always needed to be ready. I opened the door slowly and motioned for Sniper and Medic to follow. As soon as we entered, the Administrator and Ms. Pauling were staring at us.

"What are you three doing here?" She scowled in her old lady voice. "You should have been gone hours ago." Ms. Pauling had a nervous look. She'd better have kept he promise.

"We came here for Pyro," I bluntly said.

I'm not hiding out anymore. It's time to put myself out there. "What are ya doin' to 'em?"

"Once you form a grammatically correct sentence," the old fag said," I'll tell you what's happening." Medic had to hold me back from ripping off the stupid look on her face.

"We are just concerned for our friend, Miss." Medic said.

"Didn't I tell you that Pyro's just trying out a new weapon for us?"

"Yes, but..." Sniper started.

"But what?" She shrug her shoulders and looked agitated.

"We _should_ check up on Pyro," Ms. Pauling said. It's about time she tried to help us. The Administrator gave her an irritated look but gave in.

"Fine. Only to show these three that their little friend is okay." She walked down the staircase, the rest of us following. It smelled like there had been a blast of air conditioning mixed with lemon. It's probably Pinesol.

"See? Pyro is our test dummy." She pointed to the glass-walled room that was flooded with flames.

"A test dummy for what? Death?! That room is nothing but flames! I can't even see nothin' in there!" Would her suit be fireproof enough?

"Pyro will be fine, gentlemen!"

I was startled by a loud shattering of glass. I felt small chards cut my skin as they clashed to the ground. An axe slipped through the mess and hit Sniper's foot.

"What in the world was that?" Ms. Pauling said.

"Pyro? Hello?" Medic called. It looked like she had busted her way through. I ran over to the fire alarm switch and turned it on. The water sprinkled heavily, dousing out the flames.

"Pyro!" I yelled as I walked through the debris. The others followed me.

"This is quite a mess," the Admin. said. "I hope that the flame thrower did not go crazy."

"Pyro!" I called again. We all started calling for her, by her nickname of course.

I stepped on something slippery and I nearly twisted my ankle over it.

"Whoa! What's that?" I said. Everybody stopped. I sorted through a pile of ash only to find Keira's flameproof suit.

"But..." I started as I held up her darkened suit for everyone to see. There was a moment of silence. I felt like crying, but I wasn't going to. Never in front of my teammates.

"Maybe ze Pyro is still somewhere buried..." Medic said.

"I don't think he would have taken off his suit, though." The Admin. said.

"Pyro's not dead. There's respawn, remember?" Ms. Pauling said. We all gave her a relieving hug.

"Then he'll respawn without his suit on..." The Admin. thoughtfully said out loud. "His secrets will be exposed. Like his face."

"Zhen we should get back to zhe base and make sure he's okay, right?" Medic said.

"If he's respawning, then he should be fine." The Admin. said. "You are the Medic, as a matter of fact. You should know this!" She gave a sly smile.

"Actually, I should come with you. I need to find out how the flame thrower experiment went. How did you three get here?" Darn. We were getting close to leaving.

"My van." Medic said. I face palmed myself and gave Medic the "shut-the-hell-up" look. Our last chance to leave without the Admin. had just passed. No one would have known if he hadn't mentioned the van.

"Very well, let's go back to the base." We trudged through more rubble and made our way to the staircase. It wasn't a far walk to the van, but a quiet one. I assumed they were thinking about what would have happened if there was no respawn outside of the battles. If that was so, then more people than Pyro would be dead by now. Demo would have drank himself to death, and the enemy Spy would have snuck in and back stabbed all of us. Gee, I remember that one time when Medic accidentally injected himself with the wrong kind of fluid.

_Oops, zhat was not medicine! _Iremember him saying the exact words as I ran down to his office to see what was wrong. Before I knew it, we had driven back to the base. I was mostly worried for Pyro, who didn't have many options to defend herself. As we walked on the path to the entrance, I felt a burning sensation in my back pocket.

It spun around and tickled a little.

Now, I know what your thinking but forget about it. As soon as we entered, I did what I had to do.

"Move outta the way, man gotta piss comin' through!" I pretended to go to the bathroom but went to my room instead. Then I closed and locked the door. The burning by my butt cheek seemed to die down a bit, then a stream of fire came out. It whirled around and floated in front of me. The stream turned into a human, Keira to be exact.

I grinned and reached in for a hug.

"Hang on a second there, we've got a problem."

"Yeah, the Administrator and Ms. Pauling want to know how the test run went." Just stating the obvious.

"That too. I was talking about my suit." She crossed her arms and bit her lip. "Are there any clothes I could borrow from you to wear?"

"Umm..." Just by looking at her I could tell that we were different sizes.

"You only had one fire suit?"

"I have more, but there are too many people in the hallway. Soldier keeps going to and fro, especially past my room."

"What about your fire stream thing? You can just slip past-" she put her finger to my lips.

"Scout? Have you found Pyro? He is not in the respawn room!" The Admin. called out.

"Dang, she's loud." Keira said. I didn't know such an old lady could have a booming voice. "Please hurry. Anything will do." We rushed over to my messy closet. I rampaged through to find large clothing as she put her hair in a neat bun. Fortunately, a box full of everybody's replica costumes toppled to the ground.

_Oh yeah, _I thought. _That one Halloween where we got everybody's outfits and made them into costumes. I hate it when it crowds up my closet though._

I pulled out Pyro's costume and handed her the mask and suit. She put it on quickly, and luckily she was already wearing the boots. It was the same white tank top and black shorts under the suit, though.

"Scout! I am calling for you!" I heard the Admin. call again.

"Hey hey! Look who I found!" I showed her Pyro like she was a trophy or something. Somehow, everybody had gathered back into the main room again. Even Spy, who was playing with his knife.

"So Pyro," Ms. Pauling began. "How was the new flame thrower?"

"Hmmphibble." She muffled, although they could tell she meant "horrible."

"Really? How so?" Ms. Pauling asked.

"Hmht hmment phout-ef-mmrill!" She said, and I translated.

"He meant that the weapon went out of control, right?" I looked at her and she nodded.

"Well, I guess we'll have to send that back to the factory." The Admin. said.

"Hey," Heavy began. "Isn't big ceremony coming soon?"

"I wouldn't say soon, it's four months away. Plus we have to get through the brackets." Engie said.

"Mmpht err mmph racets?" Pyro asked.

"Yeah, what are brackets? It better not be for senior soldiers only. If it's fighting, then I wanna be in it too." Sounded interesting so far.

"You will all have your opportunity to participate in the brackets," The Admin. said. "I guess there's not a better time to explain it than now. Brackets precede the End-of-the-Battles ceremony. They last for about a month. It's when every team from all of the nearby districts come to fight. All of the games will be included, from Payload to Control Points. You all will have to work as a team to defeat the others. The rankings will be presented at the Ceremony, where all of you will graduate. Unless we keep you here." That last part gave me a shudder. I love this place as much as anything else, but I have a life y'now? It ain't all about fighting all the time. I've got stuff to be doin'.

"You won't start your preparatory training for another month," Ms. Pauling said. "This training is optional. You can choose to stay here and do whatever, or go out and practice new skills. We'll have more information on this later."

"That is good to know, Miss." Soldier walked over to Ms. Pauling and kissed her hand. Fakest thing I've ever seen. "Gentlemen, show some respect and remove your facial coverings!" I'm assuming that was aimed towards Spy, who always wore a face mask. Instead, Soldier was the first one to look at me. I removed my hat slowly, but I firmly grasped it in my hands. Then I looked over to Pyro, who didn't move a muscle. She was calm, but stiffened as she hoped Soldier wouldn't target her for her gas mask.

"Well, we should be going. Good night, gentlemen. Tomorrow we have physical practice, so be ready." Heavy groaned. I ain't gonna lie, he was fat. He was a tub of lard, but at least he was muscular. Medic grabbed his keys to take the Administrator and Ms. Pauling home. The rest of us just resumed what we were doing.

Pyro grabbed my arm and dragged me a little to my room. She closed the door of course, and took off her mask. She blinked her eyes and crossed her arms carelessly. This wasn't a good gesture.

"Does Sniper know?" She asked, obviously pissed a little.

"Know what?"

"You know." I felt stupid already.

"Oh, um, well yeah, he does." Oh no...

"What?! This is getting out of hand. Three people know already, and there could be more to come. I'm gonna do something about this." Great. I could have just landed her in trouble.

"What are you gonna do exactly...?" I asked.

"Why so many questions Scout? Nervous or something?" Yes, I was nervous.

"Um, I'm just wondering. I- I don't know." She gave me a less enraged look.

"You'll see. It'll take some time, but you'll see." She hugged me and started to leave the room. Loving? I think not.

"Aye, wait a sec. Sniper asked me about you. I had no choice but to answer. I think he saw the whole fire thing that you did." She gave me that weird look again.

"Scout? The master of deceiving and trickery chose not to protect me?"

"That's Spy's job, to trick and lie. I didn't know what to do."

"Sniper's got a kind heart. If he doesn't like people all up in his business, then he wouldn't pry to much in yours."

"You're right. He did say that I didn't have to answer..." I said.

"So why did you tell him?!" If she wasn't mad before, then she was now.

"He would have known either way, me telling him or not!" I tried to keep my temper, especially if it was towards a girl. A pyromaniac, to be specific. I started this conversation to make her not mad at me, but look how that's going.

"I also made him swear not to tell anyone, like the same thing I did with Medic."

"That's fine, but I'm still going through with my plan." She put on her mask and left without another word.

Boy, was I in trouble.

**It looks like the "angry fire" is starting to burn between Scout and Pyro (lol enough of these fire puns)! Scorch ya later (okay I'm done for real now)!**


	6. The Scorch Challenge

**WOOO! Thank you for all the reviews and those who are following! I really enjoy typing these stories for you guys. Let's see what Pyro's up to! Short chapter (maybe)!**

I felt confused and threatened as Pyro stormed out of my room. She never seemed mad at anyone, ever. I sat on my bed, trying to think about what just happened. I opened my door and walked to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Three glasses, as a matter of fact. As soon as I slurped down the third one, Demoman came in, calmer that usual.

"Aren't ya goin' to sleep soon, boy?" He asked.

"I- I think-" I paused. "Soon."

"You seem in a daze," he started. "Some sleep can help with that." I figured he had enough experience with being unconscious. He sat at the table.

"Sleep changes people. And I need to make some changes with myself too. I'm thinkin' about putting off the alcohol." I was amazed. I thought beer was his only friend.

"Oh," I said. I let him continue.

"Besides all the stuff that Medic's been tellin' me, I know that it messes up your system. I need to be strong and tough, and return home like that too."

"So you're going to quit drinking?" I asked, like he hadn't just explained everything.

"Yeah, for the sake of my body." He coughed and got a glass for water.

"That's good. I'm glad you're doing that. Now we just have to work on Spy and his cigars," I said. Suddenly, Demo and I felt a brush of what felt like wind. We saw a flash and a figure unmask before us.

"You called for me?" Spy said, putting out a cigar.

"No, we were just taking about you." This was going to get ugly.

"What of?"

"Your problem with cigars."

He gasped in the fakest way possible.

"What about him? Ze Demoman? He drinks himself into a sleep every day! Not good." Spy accused.

"I'm quitin'," Demoman stated. "It ain't good for ma body."

Spy looked as if he was going to slap somebody.

"I suppose you are going to try to get me to quit, no?" He said.

"It would be better for ya," I said.

"But- but-" Spy started, then paused.

"I will try." To convince Spy to do something was beyond my belief. But of course, it's about him, and I'm not sure if he'd do the same for anyone else.

After a few minutes I went up to the top of the building. It was a nice little platform that Sniper sometimes like to camp out in. It was breezy outside, and I finally had the chance to relax. In the distance I could spot the Administrator's headquarters, which looked like it was a couple miles away. She must watch the battles on a screen or somethin'. I looked over to my right and saw some crates, filled up with who-knows-what. It seemed so calm out here at night, knowing that it will be flooded with blood the next day.

I leaned over the barrier and smelled smoke. Lots of it, too. I didn't think much of it, but I did when I thought of Pyro. She might be taking her rage out through lighting things in fire. Well, whatever she was doing it for, she couldn't do it here. Team rules say so.

I climbed down the side of the building slowly. I knew that there were stairs nearby, but I just wanted the adrenaline rush. I jumped down about five feet, then readjusted my shoe. I walked slowly, being cautious, over to the source of the smoke. I was really tired, but I couldn't let something like this just pass on by. I turned the corner of the building, and realized that my prediction was right. Pyro was rage-induced.

The complete entrance of the building was scorched and ragged-looking. It was chipping off black pieces. The surrounding boulders were burning with large flames. The ground felt warm and the air made me sweat. Small puffs of fire were scattered across the ground, lit up from matches.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD?" I screamed, so everybody inside their dorms could hear. Immediately Demoman, Spy, Medic, and Soldier started in my direction, but once they saw the freaking huge fire, they jumped out of the window, one by one.

"Fire, fire, fire!" Medic yelled. "Hurry and come out now! No time to waste!" Everybody else jumped out if the building, taking their sweet-ass time. As if their lives weren't at stake.

_Pyro, why? What's wrong? _Ithought.

"Pyro! C'mon!" Where was she?

"Ze Pyro has done this?" Spy asked.

"I don't know." I said, not looking him in the eye.

I turned around, and in the center of the fire I saw Keira, just sitting there. She wasn't burning up, but it didn't look like her suit could take that much pressure either. She was completely still. It looked like she was staring at me, even through her mask. All of a sudden, I heard a groan from the others.

"Ah! Ahow!" Demo cried. He was holding his head like it was about to explode. The same happened to Medic and Heavy. Soldier fell to his knees and took off his helmet. His looked like the worst. As my teammates began collapsing, I began to feel stronger, like I was Übercharged. The better I felt, the worse the others got. I didn't like this. We're supposed to stick together.

I turned around, and Pyro was sitting closer to me, in that blank form. I was a bit creeped out. The ground got a bit hotter and I began to sweat buckets. I still felt fine though. I walked back a little and called her name quietly. She nodded slowly. I stumbled over her flame thrower and picked it up. I ran as fast as I could over to the flames and put on the compression blast. She stood up, and I thought she was going to try to stop me. Instead, she snapped her fingers and and the flames died down, and instantly went out. The others slowly rose up, looking better already. I dropped the flame thrower, and I was shaking. I couldn't control it. It stopped after about ten seconds, but it felt like forever. Everyone on the team had focused themselves now. They looked at me, and then Pyro. My heart raced. Somehow, she was holding her signature unicorn plush doll. What kind of sorcery was she using?

She clutched it tight, and then dropped it into the ashes. She walked back to the entrance as if nothing unnatural had just happened. When she was out of earshot, everyone still looked like they needed to recover.

"Oh my...should zhis be a concern?" Spy asked.

"J- just leave it alone," Engineer said. I wish I could do that. Medic and Sniper glanced at me, as if they thought that I knew something about this. They started walking back to the building, some taking underground ways inside to avoid trouble. Soon, I was the only one standing in the moonlight. I grabbed the unicorn doll and found a way underground. I went down the familiar sewers until I found that symbolic green ladder. I climbed up it and opened the hatch above.

Peeking my head over I spotted Keira sitting on her bed, her back facing me. Her red hair seemed neater that usual. She noticed me and turned around, and it wasn't until then that I saw she was only wearing her underwear and a strapless lounge top. Her suit was spread out on the floor and her gas mask was hung up on the corner of her bed. She pulled up the blankets and blushed.

"I- uh, sorry." I said. I really meant it but how much I was staring at her told a different story.

I started to climb down the ladder, but she called me back in.

"It's okay, I've gotta tell you something." My heart pounded. I didn't know if I was nervous or scared. I made my way into her room after closing the hatch. I handed her the unicorn doll.

"Here, I thought you might...want...this," Before I knew it, I was staring into her seemingly-black eyes.

"I'm glad you brought it back, now I know the truth." She made space on her bed and motioned for me to sit next to her. I wasn't sure about that, I'm a rowdy guy. That's how accidents happen. I stayed silent.

"About that whole burning thing, I just had to prove something. Or rather, _show._"

I was so lost.

"It'll be better to explain it later. I'm just glad you trust me." She hugged me.

"Oh," That's all I had to say.

"We have a free day tomorrow," I said, changing the subject.

"Oh! Thanks for reminding me." She got out of the bed, holding the blanket around her waist. She went to her closet and pulled out something in a black cloak. I assumed it was clothes. She put it on her chair and came back to the bed.

"If Sniper and Medic ask about tonight," she said, "tell them nothing."

"Of course, I don't even know anything!" She laughed at my accidental stupidity. It was past midnight now, and the others were starting to turn in.

"So, what's next in the big 'plan'?" I asked.

"Oh, you'll see. Don't worry." She smiled and laid down on her pillow. I stood up, giving her some space.

"See you tomorrow, uh, I mean today! Later today, because it's after midnight! Hahaha, oh I'll shut up. Bye!"

"Ha, bye Scout."

The truth was that I wasn't going to sleep for a long time. I went to my dorm and pulled out my laptop. I noticed that I had an email from my mom waiting to be read.

_Hi sweetie! How is everything going? I can't wait for the ceremony. Your brothers are fine so far. Call me any time. Love you!_

_-Ma_

Tears began to form in my eyes. I wasn't gonna cry. I ain't like that. It's just hard to keep a secret and know that your family is waiting for you. Even if the two things are completely unrelated. I emailed her back immediately, but I didn't expect her to respond for awhile.

I heard someone switch the hallway light off. I was pretty much the only one wide awake now. I dimmed the light on the computer and started looking up different types of baseball bats. You could never have enough.

If I could only search the answers to my problems.

I had stayed up all night. It was only 6 A.M. when I decided to get out bed and head outside. I changed into my usual team shirt and pants, grabbing a special bat along the way. I called it the Boston Basher. It was covered in spikes and dried blood, mostly from me hitting myself on accident. No matter how hard I tried, if I swung it without from the enemy team around, it'd hit me. I tried to control it, but I wound back up in the respawn room for accidental suicides.

I put in in my black bag and left the building. I wasn't going very far, just right outside. The morning sun was bright yet inviting. Getting up early had always bothered me, especially if it was for a stupid reason. This time was an exception.

There were still leftover piles of ash from Pyro's little "festival" the night before. I pushed them to the side and started to climb up the tree. It was pretty big, about half the size of the base building. I was determined to get to the top, whatever it took.

The climb was easier than what I imagined would be like. All I had to do was grip the bottom of my cleats onto the openings of the bark. My fingers began to sting, but that didn't stop me. Finally, I came to a point where I could exit onto a branch. I crawled over and sat there to catch my breath. Through the leaves I could see the window of the base, the same window that everybody had jumped out of. I could see Sniper making himself a cup of coffee and getting his rifle to do his morning shooting routines. I don't see why he had to do it today. It was a free day, and both teams were not permitted to go near each other's bases. They couldn't go past the border.

I could tell he was zooming in, and I waved. I didn't know if the leaves were blocking his view, but apparently they weren't. He put down the rifle and waved hello back. We both laughed, and I started to climb up the tree again. After a few more minutes, I reached the top. My head peeked over the edge, and I had a wide view of the whole camp.

"Hey!" I heard someone call. It startled me and I readied my bat. Not that I could hit anyone from that high up anyways.

"Down here!" I could tell that it was Engineer calling. Leaning over, I could see that everyone had came out and saw me up in the tree.

"Be careful please!" Medic yelled. I gave him a thumbs up and ducked back down into the leaves.

It was still there. The brown bag that I had put up there at the beginning of the season. I pulled out a can of _Bonk! Atomic Punch _and chugged it down. It was under some special spell, so it would automatically replace itself after the effect wore off.

I felt powerful. I was invincible. I jumped off of the top of the tree, free falling about 100 yards, more or less. I couldn't tell. The sensation was great! I crashed to the ground as everybody else thought that I was injured. I stood up without a scratch and a huge grin on my face. The effect wore of, and I started laughing hysterically.

"Oh yeah! What now?" I said, looking at everybody's stunned faces.

"I am not amused by your barbaric acts." Spy said.

"This is what you wanted to show us, Sniper? Scout jumping out off a tree?" Heavy asked.

"Well, I just saw him up there and all," he said. "I figured he'd do something like that."Everyone except him and Pyro were in their robes and pajamas.

"Thank you for wasting my time." Spy said. He cloaked and whisked away in the wind. Medic looked as if he was about to fall asleep standing up, so he went back inside too. Everyone else went back inside to start their morning, not quite dangerously as mine. I followed them.

"Hey, hey nobody saw that? Wasn't that awesome?" I asked.

"It's a bit too early in the morning to do stunts, Scout." Engie said.

"Whatever. Have you been working on your dispensers that never seem to have enough ammo in them?"

"Metal is scarce, I can't use it all!" He looked at me and gave me a sly smile.

"Why don't you go down to the gym? Put some meat on them bones?" He laughed. I couldn't argue with him, I was physically the weakest class. I scowled and left. Ironically I did feel the need to visit the gym. Chances are that Heavy and Demoman were already down there. I went downstairs and last the locker rooms. I didn't understand why we needed them if we had dorms and more locker rooms at the battlements. I slung my bag on the bench and oh goodie for me, it was unzipped a little and my Boston Basher hit me in the leg. I started bleeding.

I knew I was losing health. Medic told me that I had a regular maximum of 125. Around here, your amount of health was usually based around your weight. Except for Spy. There wasn't a health meter following me or anything, it was just a sensation that everybody had.

"Aww!" I cried. 115 left.

"Ah!" I couldn't stop making painful noises. 100 left.

"MEDIC!" I yelled. 90.

"Doc, let's go!" I yelled, louder this time. To make things worse, I bumped roughly into the side of the bench. 60 left. The bleeding slowed, and I limped to the respawn room with 35 health left. I opened one of Medic's lockers that he had placed and healed myself. I went back down to the gym, and low and behold, Heavy was there lifting weights.

"Bat problems, little man?" He taunted. I guess he'd seen me act like an idiot.

"Shut up, it was an accident," I spat. The gym was outdoors, so there was lots of room. As I predicted, Demoman was there. Surprisingly, Medic was there and lifting a giant tire. I joined them and lifted some weights, starting out with the 40-pounder.

"Hello Scout, I am glad that you did not hurt yourself with that tree. It would have been a nasty procedure!" Medic said, finally slipping over the tire.

"Ha, uh, thanks?" What else could I say? I went back to focusing on the weights, until he nudged me in the rib with his elbow.

"Hey.." I said, thinking it was an accident.

"But look..." He discreetly pointed in the direction of the door. Pyro came in, wearing her usual suit but without the shiny covering. She had rolled up the pants part of it, revealing most of her thigh. She was wearing running shoes with knee-high socks. Her mask was white and only covered her hair and face. The sleeves on her suit were rolled up to the shoulder and black fingerless gloves were on her hands. Not your average Pyro.

Keira waved, muffling "hello" through her mask. We waved back and went back to what we were doing. I watched her out if the corner of my eye as she climbed on the top of the trash cans. She jumped and grasped the monkey bars and pulled herself on top of them. Her slender body slipped through each bar as she climbed down the pole. Keira did a back handspring and landed back on the trash can. All this touching the ground, just once.

After a few more minutes, I could tell she was an acrobat, gymnast, or just extremely flexible. Eventually everyone in the gym was watching her, and even Engineer watched out of the window. She was so agile, yet balanced with her flips and twists.

Was this a part of her "plan"?

Over the next couple of weeks, Pyro began to draw more attention to herself. More gymnastics, more fire, and on one day she even took out her axe and starting hitting Engineer's sentry, and claimed that she was "helping." Through the battles I felt better, faster even. The team seemed to lag a little, but the training would fix that. Keira seemed to talk to me less, and when she did it was in secret. Not even in front of Sniper and Medic.

But I remember she said that she was glad that she could trust me. In return, I should trust her. I'm starting to see the good and bad sides of what I think is her plan so far. I think I can see why she's doing this before the brackets. She can be a role model for the team, but that has its benefits.

Training starts tomorrow. Like Ms. Pauling said, it was optional. I was definitely in it though, and I have a feeling that Pyro will join me. Everybody seems to know her pretty well now, even if they don't know her true identity. That's an advantage. But it's also a down side. If they know her better, then they'll be more curious about her.

Starting tomorrow, we're going to see how her plan is turning out.

**Yay! Chapter 7 will be up ASAIAATDS ( as soon as I am able to do so!) R and R!**


	7. Bloody Inferno

**I'm back! There are a lot of guest reviews, and some of them aren't very helpful. Keep in mind that this is a website for constructive criticism, and if you don't like the story, then you shouldn't be reading it. Thanks! I deleted them by the way, so don't worry.**

"Gentlemen! If you do not rise within the next 30 seconds and join me in the main room I will have you on probation!" The Admin. screeched in her maniac voice. I looked at the clock. It was 8 A.M. That was decent timing, especially for her. I walked to the main room, being the last one to arrive. She gave me a dirty look as I shuffled down the hallway.

"Weren't you supposed to be fast?" Spy said and smiled. I was so morning-dazed that I didn't even want to answer.

"Now, I can begin the meeting. As you can see I'm in a very foul mood." Wasn't she always?

"I recently found out that the green team had won an award of achievement for a ruthless kill streak by the whole team. I even heard that they defeated a whole enemy team without any of them having to respawn." She said.

"Where are they from?" Heavy asked.

"Manhattan, New York." Everybody was quiet. Manhattan had some brutal fighters.

"As I was saying, the prepatory training for brackets is now mandatory. We can't afford to put in out lowest effort."

"And we're starting today?" Medic asked.

"Right now, as a matter of fact." Ms. Pauling said. The two ladies shoved us out the door, in our sleeping clothes and all. Unusually, Pyro wasn't wearing her gas mask. She had on a long, red sweatshirt that had strings. You know, the kind that you pull and it makes the hood cover your face? Her hands were covered and black slacks were on her legs. Whatever we were doing, it probably wasn't very important if we could do it in our pajamas.

Well, I was wrong.

We gathered outside where the piles of ash once laid.

"Sometimes you won't have your weapons with you," the Admin. started, "so we're going to test your hand-to-hand combat skills." She paused and skimmed at all of us. "Sniper and Spy, you go first." They both looked at each other, and stepped into the light green circle that had been poorly painted onto the dirt.

"Don't get blood on my suit," Spy taunted.

"Remember, for now you're just trying to knock each other out. Don't, well, kill them just yet." I snickered. That'll be hard for Heavy. The Administrator blew the whistle, and the two shuffled around the ring.

Sniper made the first move, which looked like he was attempting to karate chop Spy's throat. Spy blocked it and smiled deviously. I felt my excitement rise like the dirt between my toes. Spy slid his foot into Sniper's ankle, and he fell. Sniper rolled forward and socked him in the stomach. While Spy was down, Sniper gave him an uppercut to the nose. The fight went on for a few more minutes, and eventually Sniper won.

"Well played, my friend." Spy said smugly, when he started coming to. Ms. Pauling wrote something on her clipboard. I assumed it was a point for Sniper.

"Heavy and Soldier." Oh man, this was gonna be a good one. As everyone predicted, Heavy won, leaving Soldier in a bloody unconscious mess. I could even see Ms. Pauling laughing a little during the fight too. Everyone else tried to stifle their laughs as Soldier limped back into the line.

"Um, let's see. Pyro and Scout." Oh crap. Normally, I wouldn't ever hurt a girl unless she actually wanted to fight me, or if she just plain pissed me off. I walked into the circle, avoiding eye contact with her. Only her nose was visible. The Admin. blew the whistle at the exact time I punched her in the jaw. She stumbled back a little, but stabilized quickly. Now the action started.

I tried to punch her in the stomach but she grabbed my wrist and twisted it almost all the way around. She was using both hands, so I used my knee to nudge her in the stomach instead. She coughed up some blood at the same time when she broke my wrist. Everyone was quiet and watching the battle intently. We both made noises as we fell to the ground and made it more like a wrestling match. I was on top of her, holding her arm behind her back and pulling back her head with the other hand. Unfortunately, one of her legs slipped out from under me and slammed into my balls.

"Ooohhhhhh," I heard everyone else say.

"Must be hurtin'." Engie said.

I brought my knees together and tried to ignore the pain down there. She kicked me again, and this time, she flipped me over. I landed hard on my back, and she appeared upside down. I got back up on my feet, my knees still together. We shuffled around again, and I hit her clean in the throat. I had to end this somehow, and so I did. I gave her a brutal roundhouse kick to the head, and she was knocked clean out. I looked at everybody else, jaw-dropped and all. Medic looked concerned and started to walk towards her, but she got up on her own and tightened her jacket strings.

The rest of the morning was filled with fighting and bloodbaths. Soon after, we got an hour break to get dressed in our actual clothes and to let Medic heal us. That was more than enough time for me.

"Now, the battlefield isn't just all about weapons," the Admin. said, walking into the main room unannounced once again. "It requires stealth and stamina. You will run a mile, and if you do not achieve under 12 minutes, you'll run it again until you so." I got this. Running was my thing, remember?

The crew walked over to a softball field that I didn't even know we had.

"No sidewalks?" I asked. "Concrete? This is just grass and dirt."

"You don't have a choice. Most of the battlefields will be on dirt and grass anyways." I rolled my eyes and took my position. Her whistle blew, and I took the lead.

I only remember circling Heavy twice, and that was just on the same lap. I was breathing fast, and my heart felt like it was going to burst. I kept running.

Medic wasn't too far behind me, him being the second fastest and all. Heavy was doing his best, and he actually wasn't as slow as I thought he'd be. I finished strong at six minutes even. Everyone else made the cut, even Heavy at ten minutes and thirty seconds.

"I'm assuming you're all tired, worn out even," the Admin. said. I knew I was, but I kept going. "During the brackets there will be no breaks or rests. You're next task-" she paused. Ms. Pauling looked at her, and everyone expected her to say something.

"Just follow me." We trudged through the heated atmosphere. It was about noon now. I didn't know where we were going, but it must be somewhere ghetto. I began to smell sewage in the air and made a face. Sniper noticed and smiled at me. The Administrator stopped abruptly, causing each of us to bump into each other. Soldier gave me a dirty look as I nearly tripped him.

"As I was saying, you're next task will be to climb this building. You may not use any weapons, only your abilities. There is no time limit, but we'll all stay here until everyone has finished."

"But what if-" I interrupted.

"I'm not finished yet," she said. "You may not help each other. If you fall, start over, even if you're injured. If you fall so hard that it's enough to kill you, then you'll respawn nearby. Any questions?"

"Actually I have one-" I attempted to speak again.

"No? Good. We're going to teleport to the top of the building. See you soon!" Ms. Pauling and her left on cue.

I couldn't believe that we were just given task after task, but I did believe that the Administrator was the person to do it. I looked at the building and noticed that it was lined with ladders, but they didn't lead all the way up to the building. They were small ladders, separated by metal rods. I'd have to pull myself up and over the ledge at the top.

"Offense first?" Demo asked. Surprisingly, Pyro was the first one to start climbing. She clung to the rails so tight, that I could almost see her knuckled changing colors. I went after her, followed by Demo and Spy. The ladders were scattered all over the side, so more than one person could go at once.

My back started hurting after five minutes, and I wasn't even halfway there. Eventually, my hands have out and I fell to a clumsy, painful death. I didn't even think that it would kill me, break my spine at most. I respawned nearby, as the Administrator said I would. What sucked was that everybody was now ahead of me since I was the first one to fall. I cracked my knuckles and started climbing again, finally getting past the point where I had fell. Soldier was the next to fall.

I remember seeing his limbs at strange angles, and watching his eyes roll back into his head.

I made it this time. Pyro, Medic, Sniper, Spy and Demo were all waiting for me and the others at the top.

"Very well," the Admin. said as Soldier, Heavy and the others made their way up on the rooftop. I was panting pretty hard, and I couldn't feel my fingers.

The rest of the day was of running and wearing buckets. I walked into the main room, stiff and sore in every place possible. And I mean _every_ place. As soon as I recollected myself, I noticed that it was only me, Pyro, Medic, and Sniper in the room. Everybody else had either turned in for the night or wanted to be alone. All of a sudden, Pyro took off her mask and surprised us all. I looked at her, then looked away. Once I realized what had happened, I looked back.

"Herr Pyro..." Medic started. Sniper gulped, and I felt startled.

"There is a deep cut on, or rather, _in_ your neck." Medic wasn't lying, not that he would. On Keira's neck there was a knife-long scar that was fresh with blood. She felt it dramatically with two of her fingers.

"I fell," she said. "I fell off of the building, right after Scout went up. There was an arrow on the ground and it cut my neck. It really hurt but I had to keep going." There was silence as a few tears flooded her eyes. Her bottom lip began to quiver, but I knew she wouldn't cry. She picked up her mask and set it on the table. The material was cut and almost looked impossible to fix.

"I- I should treat that. Come with me, please." Medic said. She dropped her mask and nodded.

"In a minute," she said. Medic nodded and motioned for Sniper to leave. Once they were gone, she looked at me.

"How high was the fall?" I asked quietly.

"About halfway," she said, her voice shaky.

"But I fell too, maybe we just didn't notice each other."

"R-right." She tried to stabilize herself, but failed. Out came the waterworks. Her tears came fast and wet her chest. I hugged her and kept her close; it didn't matter if anyone else saw us now.

"I-I knew there was respawn, but I just felt like that was the end of everything." She sobbed some more, and her arms clenched my back tighter.

"That's how one of my relatives died; they killed themselves because of me." My shirt was now moist with her blood and tears. She shuddered as I stroked her back. I wanted to ask which one of her relatives died, but I felt it would be nosy.

"You'll be okay..." I whispered in her ear. I wiped some of her tears away with my hand. She looked into my eyes, with her gentle, innocent face. Her cheeks were red, but not as red as mine. I picked up her torn mask with my other hand. Slowly, I put it on her head, my arm now around her shoulder. We walked down the hallway, off to Medic's office.

_You'll be okay_, I thought. Her blood dripped down the hallway.

The next morning was pretty much the same as before, meeting in the morning, running a mile and everything. What was different didn't surprise me. The Administrator lined us up when we got back to the main room, a strict look on her face.

"Gentlemen, I have an upsetting announcement to make. The green team is unexpectedly traveling to our district today. And, because they have the right, there will be no respawn until the whole team has fallen."She turned around slowly. "Be ready for death."

This angered me. Our own boss didn't believe that we could defeat another team? I mean sure, they may be the best but can we at least try? Any confidence here?

"Their Pyro and Spy are the best killers on the team," she said. She walked up to Pyro, whose neck wound was now fixed, and poked her chest.

"You. You need to be ready for anything." The Administrator said. "Be ready to ambush, to kill." Her face moved closer to the gas mask. Pyro wasn't intimidated. She never was. The Admin. walked behind her, suspiciously. I knew something was coming up. Ms. Pauling bit her nails, as if she knew what was going to happen.

The Admin. quickly pulled out a knife, and back stabbed her several times until her blood flooded the room.

_"Zhat is my job..." _I heard Spy whisper to himself.

She fell on impact, her knees going every which way in the process. The knife had ripped open her skin, and her broken spine was visible. Somehow, the blood started to fill up her mask.

"What the hell? What in the freaking hell are you doing idiot?!" I scolded the Admin. Pyro squirmed, and the Admin. stabbed her one more time. She was forced to take off her mask to avoid choking on her own blood, not that she wasn't about to die anyways. Her hair blended with her blood, and her face was indistinguishable. I snatched the knife from the Admin, and held it to her head.

"Stop! This is to show you all that this anything can happen, anytime! Learn from this!" She yelled, pointing to the dead girl on the floor. I threw the knife at her, and it made a long, deep cut on her arm.

"How dare you!" She yelled. I would have struck her again if Medic and Heavy hadn't held me back.

"Huh? Were you expecting that? That can happen anytime, can't it?!" If I couldn't hurt her, I had to teach her a lesson. She groaned and fell to the floor.

"What now? You gonna cry? You gonna cry now?" I couldn't control myself. She had to pay. Nobody said anything. I tripped over Pyro's corpse and went to my dorm, much like a child that had just been punished. I dropped the knife, and gave everyone one last look before slamming my door.

_Calm down, that little fag can't hurt you, _I thought. I was still pissed, about to hit something.

I took off my blood-soaked shirt, only to find that it had wet my chest too. Why was she being so unfair? Why would she hurt her own employee? I thought about these questions, and decided to forget about them. I got my steel baseball bat, and temporarily put myself out of my misery.

I swung the bat, and blacked out.

I woke up the next morning, still shirtless with a huge purple lump on my head. A stench filled my nose, and I grimaced. Slowly, I rose while trying not to crash into anything. My hand barely touched the doorknob as I opened the door. My eyes were red and my face was hard to look at. Making my way towards the kitchen, I saw that everybody had already started their training outside. They had their weapons with them. Something squishy touched my foot. I looked down, and found out where the stench was coming from.

Pyro's lifeless body was still there. The blood was dried, and spattered all over the wall. I nudged her with my hand, and she didn't move.

I began panting. She had to respawn. It was the rules. Maybe this was the Admin's punishment for me. To kill my friend.

I ran back to my room, got dressed, and grabbed my three main weapons. Bursting through the front door, I had apparently interrupted a death match between Soldier and Demoman.

"Well, look who calmed themselves down." The Admin. teased.

"Yeah. It's not like a boss killing one of their workers isn't an everyday thing." I replied sarcastically. She smiled with evil.

"He's still dead." I continued.

"Since you have so much energy," she spoke," why don't you fight everyone? If you win against everyone, then I'll revive him." I hesitated, then spat.

"Let's do it."

**Wow, Scout's got a bit of a short temper there, doesn't he? I couldn't blame him. R and R! WHO SHALL WIN?**


	8. Left With Ashes

**Hi! This chapter be relatively short (I'm serious this time).Enjoy! R and R! **

The Administrator waited as I prepared myself to fight everyone. My teammates were supposed to be my friends as well. Why was she doing this?

I know why. It was just for Pyro. Because I was selfish enough not to protect her when she depended on me. And now she's dead.

First up was Medic. I had a hard time accepting the fact that I had to hurt him. He was so nice and caring, something that I lack in. I punched his jaw, and he didn't seem to defend himself. I kept jabbing him, and it was almost as if he was letting me win. Everyone else looked around and wondered what was going on. The Administrator had a blank look on her face as if she expected something better than this. His glasses bounced every which way and came off. Without them, he missed most of his hits and I could easily dodge them with ease.

Eventually I knocked him out, blood spilling on the ground.

"Sniper!" The Admin. called out. She pointed in my direction and he nodded. He stepped in the circle and positioned himself.

Sniper was the same. I punched his jaw, and he didn't have any defense. We shuffled around the circle, and I ended up knocking him out, the same way as I did with Medic. What was going on?

"That's it. I've seen enough. All of you, leave me. Do not come to me unless I come to you. Our training has been postponed, but still take care of yourselves." I hobbled over to the base, but she put her hand on my shoulder.

"Not you," she said. Even Ms. Pauling looked up, who was trying to revive Medic and Sniper.

"You have an attitude, and I should have known that earlier. You really care about your teammates, don't you?" She tried to intimidate me. It was working. I faked my confidence.

"Yes. Haven't I proven that?" I looked her straight in the eye. She pursed her lips.

"It would be ridiculous to say that you haven't, but shouldn't you protect everyone? Not just Pyro?" I was breaking down fast.

"I do protect everyone. What you did to Pyro was pure selfishness. How are you going to demonstrate death by killing your own worker? How is that an example for everyone else?!" I snapped.

"It was a pure example of expecting the unexpected! Haven't you learned that? I suppose not. A real mercenary would have let me do my job, not endanger everyone else!" She was half right, but we were both wrong in some way. How could I tell her not to be selfish when I was doing the exact opposite?

A breeze came and created a small sandstorm. Sand entered her eyes as I stalked past her and went over to Ms. Pauling. Medic and Sniper were just coming to, dazed and confused. They got up on their own, covering their faces. After the storm, I assisted Medic back to the base, then to his office. His glasses were crooked and half broken.

I have no idea what the Admin. and Ms. Pauling did after I left, but I could care less. As I half-dragged Medic down the hallway, my eyes filled with water as my foot stepped in the puddle of dry blood that once belonged to the lover of fire. Nobody had touched her, or even got a body bag. They just left her there, dead and helpless.

I reached Medic's office and lied him on the bed and shook him back to full consciousness.

"Doc," I whispered. "Hey." He opened his bruised eyes, and looked at me like I was a stranger.

"Danke herr, Scout. What happened?" He asked with his soft German accent.

"It's a long story. But I need your help." There wasn't time for him to heal himself.

"Is zhe Pyro still dead?" He asked.

"Uh-yeah." The words were just as bad as the death itself.

"And ze corpse is where?"

"In the hallway, untouched." He furrowed his eyebrows.

"But ze Administrator was supposed to bring her back to-" I coughed loudly on purpose. He was speaking loud now and I didn't want anyone to hear us.

"She didn't. She killed her and left us. I need your help to bring her back, please." I never said please. Had I changed that much?

He rubbed his sore eyes and found a new pair of glasses.

"Hmmmm..." He hummed. "She had been dead for awhile now, it will be more difficult. The respawn should have worked, but I'm guessing zhat the Administrator is still trying to prove her point. I will need the corpse here." He said, pointing to a hospital bed. He handed me some sanitation gloves and a face mask. He did the same with himself, and we walked down the hallway to pick up the body. Engineer watched from his door, like a little girl who couldn't sleep. We picked Pyro up, and made our way back to the office.

"And now," Medic began, "medicine will begin! Thank you Scout, but I must be alone to proceed. Please let me know if the Administrator comes back, for I will have to hide the body." I wanted to ask why, but I already knew.

"Yeah, thanks doc! Your the best!" I pulled off my gloves and mask and tossed them in the trash.

Hopefully, the Administrator would not come back for a couple of days, and we would have time to get our teammate back.

I limped over to Pyro's room, and locked the door. Engie was still standing in his doorway, and now it was getting a bit awkward.

Her room was a bit dull without her actually in it. I stepped over boxes of matches and old candles, along with lighters and specials oils. Her walls were slightly burnt and chipping off. How much damage could she do to one room? Through the maze of mess, I stumbled over an empty cardboard box. It didn't mean much to me at first, but I noticed it was blocking something. I moved it out of the way, and tried to pull out whatever was behind it. It was cold and hard, so it must have been metal. Nudging it a little, I saw a light come on. Suddenly, it sat up, and I realized it had a human form. Well, I wouldn't say human. It looked exactly like Pyro, but it took on more of a masculine shape, if I could even call it that. Its bolted limbs seemed fragile but strong at the same time. It's eyes were glowing brightly now; the machine seemed friendly but ready to fight. Its head swayed from left to right, like it was looking for something. I stepped back and hoped it wasn't going to target me, because our uniforms suggested that we were on the same team.

Across its wide chest was one word:

_Pyrobot. _

Much to my discomfort, it looked at me and tilted its head. My heart seemed to stop, but I wasn't afraid. The machine began to shake slightly, and I thought it was malfunctioning at first, but I was wrong. From its stomach, a piece of paper came out. I grabbed it hesitantly and flipped it over.

On the paper, there was a picture of Engineer, and by his appearance it looked

recent. It didn't take me long to piece the two things together. I looked back up at the robot, then at the paper again. The robot's head began to spin around, and it printed the same picture again. Then two more times.

"Alright, calm down. I'll take you to him." I motioned for it to follow me, and apparently it was smart enough to do so. I unlocked and opened the door. Engineer wasn't standing in his doorway anymore. As a matter of fact, his door was closed shut. I sighed, and knocked. He opened it and looked startled at the object standing behind me.

"I-"he started.

"Pyrobot wanted to see you." I said, and handed him the pictures. A slow smile came across his face, and I laughed. Pyrobot was still, motionless.

"Oh yeah," Engie said. "I remember building this old thing here." He said, pointing to the robot. "Back in the old days we used to have Mann vs. Machine battles. You weren't around." Of course Engineer knew, he was kept at the base for another year by the Administrator.

"Why don't we do those battles anymore?" I asked.

"No more robots were left," he said. "We defeated them all. The people who sent them didn't like Mann Co. at all. All the bombs were gone, and we restored peace again. I built this little guy here because I was inspired by the enemy robot Pyro. At the time, the team didn't have any regular Pyros, that is until now."

"Did Pyro want the robot?" I said, my curiosity growing.

"Boy, the fella practically begged for the thing! Somethin' ain't right in that mind of his, but we love him anyways, am I right?" He laughed.

"Yeah, that's great." I was only half-listening to him anyways.

"Well, I guess you should take it back to Pyro's room then, or he might throw a fit." The robot moved suddenly. It inched closer to Engie until it was finally halfway into his room.

"Um, I should probably let the thing stay here." Engie said. "Get along now, I've got work to do. Hey, you were in Pyro's room weren't you? Why?"

I gave him an unsure look.

"Oh, no reason!" I said, and have the fakest smile I could.

"Mmhmm. Alright now. Don't tell the Administrator about this or we'll all be in more trouble!" He went back into his room and closed the door. How many secrets was I going to have to keep from the Administrator?

If he had built Pyrobot, then why didn't he build a Scoutbot or a Soldierbot? I had so many more questions for him, but I can tell that he didn't want to talk more about it. I assumed that the robot had been sitting there for as long as Pyro had been around at Mann Co. It was never used in battle; never used to defend the whole team. If only Engineer had reminded her about the robots. If only the Administrator had allowed it on the battlefield once again.

If only Pyro could tell me why she had tried to burn it to destruction.

**Plot twist! R and R, ILL BE SEEING YOU!**


	9. Meet The Pyro

**I'm back! Honestly, the updates might come a bit slower due to all the activities that are going on at school, because I'm going to eighth grade soon. But don't worry! I'm not going to abandon this story**. **I don't own anyone.**

The next morning was as dull as the Administrator looked. Apparently the sick fairy came by overnight because Demo and Engineer were coughing like no tomorrow. I remembered that Medic was working on Pyro last night, so I headed over to his office. We had the day off, but this was our last free day. Everything from here on out would be push-ups, shooting practice, etc.

At the front of Medic's office, I snatched a mask that covered my face and nose. He kept them there and usually made the others put them on if he had been operating or healing someone earlier.

_Knock knock knock._

"Hello there? Did somebody knock?" I heard him ask through the door. He sounded drowsy, but mostly tired.

"It's me, Scout." I said, looking down at my loose green pajama bottoms and white T-shirt. The bottoms reminded me of our number one enemy, the Greens.

"Do come in!" He said. Just as I was going to open the door, he opened it for me. His rustled hair and confused-looking face showed that he had a long night. Medic stabilized Keira by holding her up.

She seemed out-of-the-zone, but alert at the same time. Her skin was a light red tone, like her whole body was blushing. Her red hair was in a messy ponytail, and she stared at me so hard that I thought she was looking through my soul.

But most of all, her eyes were solid, bloody red.

Medic yawned. "Aye, she should get some rest. The healing was good, and we were done hours ago. Anyways, rest." Medic said, looking at Keira at the last sentence. I started to hug her, but as soon as I made contact, she pulled away forcefully. Her glare almost shot through me. She nodded at Medic oddly, and walked to her room, her mask tightly gripped in her hand.

"Umm-" but before I could say what I was going to say, he pulled me into his office and pulled off the sanitation mask I had on.

"Yes, yes, I do realize zhat she is not the same. She hardly said anything during the healing. She seemed rather quiet, actually. At least for someone who had a massive cut in zheir neck."

"Right, but she almost looks, demonic. It was almost as if her blood was on the outside of her body..."

"I did notice a slight blush on her body, a light red tone. Ze Keira, was also warm when I touched her. Almost hot, like a summer day."

There was a thoughtful silence.

"Well, keep an eye on her. Also, I injected her with this." He showed me a needle filled with a grayish fluid.

"It's just to relieve the pain, but I had to give her the minimal amount. For some reason, more than that amount actually caused her more pain. This is why she can't have any painkillers either." We both heard Demo and Engineer cough violently in their dorms.

"I should attend to them, I did not know zhat the common cold was spreading." he yawned again as I shuffled my way out of the door.

"T-thank you." I stammered.

"It is only my job!" He said, and gave me a salute. I smiled and closed the door. As I walked down the hallway, the ground seemed heated. It slowly got hotter, then it got so hot that I couldn't stand it. I literally hopped across the floor, trying to make as little contact as possible.

"MMMMMHMHMHHHHHHHMMMM!" That muffled, loud-as-hell scream was the last thing I heard before everyone simultaneously swung open their doors and shoved their way over to Pyro's door. By now I was literally on the ground, burning up and trying to regain my hearing.

"Good lord! What has happened to ze ground?" Spy said, taking his mask off and putting it on the ground so he could stand on it. We all watched as the mask melted into the ground. Spy looked upset, but also amazed.

"Pyro!" Heavy called, and banged on her door. The door started to melt with a white-hot flame. As the door became less of what it was originally was, the girl who I once called my love interest had turned into a full-out monster of fire. Her room was ablaze, and nothing could be seen but flames and more flames.

Sniper yelled out it pain as he accidentally burned his hand on the now melting wall. Soldier passed out from heat exhaustion, and everybody started to panic. Pyro stepped out of her room, wearing a tight black suit and long black boots. Her gloves were sleek and fireproof along with her signature mask. If the others couldn't tell that she was a girl, well they definitely could now. Her curves became more exposed as everything she touched was set on fire.

Everybody seemed to black out for a second, including me. We came to moments later, and she now had an axe. She swung like a maniac once, twice, then three times. Her hits were successful, cutting Spy, Heavy, and then me.

The hallway was now melted and reduced to the walls' inner construction. I was sweating buckets, and dodged another axe swing as Engineer was the next to pass out.

"Get a grip!" I yelled as loud as I could.

"You need to stop, now!" Heavy said. We all started to scream commands, hoping to stop her greatest fire rampage yet. We couldn't escape because the door handles had melted off, and every other exit option had something wrong with it.

Suddenly, the flames were doused by some unknown source. Her room was literally a giant pile of ashes, and so was the hallway. Those that were passed out slowly came to, and everybody began to refocus themselves on the fire maniac that stood before us. Pyro was breathing heavily, then shaking. She fell to her knees, dropping her axe. Her sobs were loud, and the gas mask didn't make it any better. All of us watched as the small drops of water came from the inside of the mask, through the breathing opening, and onto the ground. We sighed as she shuddered harder and cried.

"S-sorry." The others looked shocked. The word was perfectly clear, so that anybody could understand it. "S-sorry." She said again. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a thick liquid seeping out of Engie's room. Engineer noticed as I looked, and he walked over to the entrance, or rather pile of mess, of his room. Everyone else walked over, except for Pyro, who crawled awkwardly. She scooped up some of the liquid, and sobbed again.

The remains of Pyrobot didn't do her a good favor.

What I was confused about was that she had intentionally tried to burn it before. Why was it a big deal if she has, or _had _a million other things to burn?

Anyways, the poor girl laid down in the slouch and cried even harder.

"Zhere, zhere Pyro. We can build another. We can build millions, so that you can burn them. Burn them to crisps! Doesn't zhat sound fun?" Medic said. Everybody looked at him as if he had completely lost it. Engineer mouthed to him something about not being able to build several robots.

Pyro, who had surprising calmed herself down, nodded and sat up. Everyone had lost their chance to identify her as a girl, because now her suit was ruined by melted waste. I didn't know why she was acting like a mental patient. My guess was that she was on her period, but there was no way in Doublecross that I was going to ask her that.

"Well," Medic began, "I apparently have some work to do."

.…...

"Settle down please!" Medic had gathered us in a room that most of us didn't know that existed. All of the walls were bright white, and it almost looked like an office. We had to go underground to get to it, so luckily it wasn't burned up. Everyone except Pyro and Medic sat in soft, comforting chairs, which was the opposite of what I though we were going to sit in.

Medic was standing by Pyro, who was laying down unconscious on a bed. Don't even ask how we got her to come with us.

"Due to Pyro's little 'incidents', we were all in danger. Today I am going to observe her brain through memories, dreams, and whatever else interesting I can find." Medic explained. He began to attach long chords with sticky things at the end to her head, and the other to a machine, being careful not to show her face.

"But I thought zhat you were only a doctor." Spy said.

"I am many things, my friend." He smiled.

"So,um," I had a question but lost it. "We're gonna see what she's thinking or whatever on that screen right there?" I said, pointing to a huge screen.

"Well, yes I suppose. I have only done this procedure one other time." I bit my lip. Sniper gave Medic a wink.

"Well, here we go!" He said, and turned on the switch to transport us into the mind of a pyromaniac.

.…...

At the beginning of the dream (or whatever you want to call it), she was walking on an orange ground, stepping over rocks and other stuff. She held an axe, but didn't look extremely intimidating. Heavy suddenly appeared in a dark room, telling how he wasn't afraid of anyone except her. Then it went to me, calling her a freak and apparently trying to take off something on my chest. I felt my heart beating faster, but of anxiousness. Spy was the last to show in the dark room, but he didn't seem scared by Pyro. Sustained cruelty, something like that. Everyone's eyes were glued to the screen as we watched her burn down some wooden buildings. The camera switched to first person perspective and, wow, everything was sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows! I have this weird thing with rainbows, so don't talk to me about it. A baby version of Heavy came along, and Pyro picked up a lollipop in victory. The baby ran towards her.

"Heh, this is not so bad." Heavy said. We laughed.

As Pyro stuffed the lollipop into baby Heavy's mouth, it switched to a scene where she was splitting his head open with an axe. Blood spattered the camera.

"Never mind," Heavy said quietly.

The baby looked satisfied, meanwhile the real Heavy was dying quickly. Then, a baby version of me came up.

"Aww crap," I said. Medic shushed me and watched intently. A baby version of me sat on her Rainblower, enjoying the bubbles that she was blowing. Switching scenes, I saw that in reality I was being shot in the face. I cringed. Going back to the cheerful world, I paired up with Heavy to laugh and do whatever babies do, and Medic peeked out of a box. Pyro noticed and skipped over to play peek-a-boo with him, but instead he was being locked in a closet by an axe and the room burned that he was in. What a painful way to die. The dream went back to the babies, this time everyone included. Pyro sprayed everyone with rainbows, and everyone seemed happy. Demobaby said goodbye to us by taking up half the screen, and it switched back to terror for the last time. The real Demoman was crawling on the ground, along with Soldier who had been shot. I ran across the screen with my arm extended out. Sniper fell from someplace high, and mistakenly grabbed her foot. She looked down and burned him alive. That was basically the end of the dream, unless you count the part where she leaves the scene whistling with burned, crusted bodies everywhere.

Medic turned off the machine slowly, shaking a little.

"Vell, zhat was a bit disturbing." He said and adjusted his glasses.

"The bracets are next month, s- uh, he had to be ready!" Sniper said. Medic laughed a little.

"Ah, we can use her maniac ways to defeat our enemies!" He said.

"But can you explain why he's been acting like a phsyco lately?" Demo said.

"From the dream, I am assuming that this partly had to do with her mindset, and possible the medicine I gave her. The more I injected, the more pain he felt. I didn't give him anymore, not even painkillers."

"Hey, lemme see that medicine you gave her." Sniper said. Medic hesitated but grabbed two pairs of gloves, one for himself and one for Sniper. He grabbed the needle with the gray fluid he had showed me earlier.

"Where did you get this?" Sniper asked, examining it closely.

"It came with my medical set," he said, "I believe it was from a company in Australia actually."

"Ah, I see. Through my many years of livin' down under I've seen drinks polluted with stuff. That medicine's probably got some infections in it for all I know. Maybe some parasites."

"Zhat is disgusting." Medic said. "But I cannot fix that now. I must analyze it later, though." It was about noon, so everyone headed over to what was left of the kitchen. I'm surprised that Medic let Pyro join us, but he put her on a human leash and tied her up. She wasn't a dog, there was just something wrong with her. Through the while time she tried to untie the extreme knot that Medic had put in. I looked over at her. Watching her attempting to untie the knot, she looked like that young girl inside that had just touched a match for the first time.She was wearing a long hospital robe that covered her whole body. Apparently she had switched masks again because a more murderous-looking one covered her face.

"What are we gonna do about him?" Engineer asked, and pointed his head in the direction of Pyro.

"Pyro can continue training tomorrow, but the Administrator may be suspicious. If she asks, we all have to defend Pyro." We all nodded.

"It also has been discovered that Pyro had some natural fire powers. I think zhat we should all keep him calm until the brackets begin. Based on the dream, I think he knows who are his teammates, and who aren't. It also seems that he imagines everything through a rather, _girly _perspective_._"

"Then maybe he is a she..." Engineer said. Everyone looked at Medic.

"Only you would know that, doctor." Spy said smugly.

"Oorrrrr maybe he just has a different perspective of life!" I said, trying to help the situation.

"Rainbows do not make you cry after all." He smiled.

"I am going to go continue my research." Medic said and left the table.

"I guess tomorrow we'll find out lot's a things." I said. Pyro looked up at me, and through her mask, I could tell that she silently agreed.

…...

**It seems that Pyro's got some issues to work out 0_0 The brackets are coming soon! See ya soon!**


	10. Dousing Out The Flames

**I'm back! R and R! I don't own anyone!**

I didn't sleep. I couldn't. The whole team had to go in Heavy's room for the night, because his room was the least damaged by the fire besides Medic's office. Everyone else slept in awkward positions. I could hear the Administrator's janitors and Engineer working to fix the most damaged parts of the building. Pyro was at the center of the room, curled up in a ball. The morning came quickly.

"Excuse me! Who is responsible for this disastrous mess?!" The Administrator shouted. Even her workers were a bit startled. We all came out of the room, tired and uncoordinated.

"Mess? What mess?" I said and yawned.

"The piles of ash and-" She paused to look around. "Well, I guess most of the damage is gone now but I still need to know who is responsible for this!" Her face was very plain-looking, but she still looked like a demon.

We looked at each other, but not saying anything.

"Pyro...fire. It doesn't take long to put two and two together." She said, picking up a pile of ash and throwing it back on the ground. Two of her workers grabbed Pyro by the wrists, pulling her towards the Admin. She resisted, but couldn't defeat the strength of the two combined.

"How dare you destroy these living quarters! I have given you everything! Weapons! Food! Shelter! And you choose to thank me like this?" Pyro cursed something at her through her mask. Medic coughed loudly to get the Admin's attention.

"Zit is not her fault!" He said desperately. "I-it is mine."

The Admin. raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"Well, I gave her some medicine and I wasn't sure of how it would result.." Medic said.

"You're telling me that Pyro could not help her actions?"

"Yes, zhat is true." There was a moment of silence.

"Alright, I believe you." She pointed to all of the team."But you all need to keep her under control, or there will be grim punishments." We nodded.

"_Her_?" Heavy asked. "He is a, _she_?"

I could feel Pyro tense up against me and the workers.

"Um, I do not know myself actually." The Admin. somewhat lied. That's only what she was thinking. The workers still had Pyro's wrists in a tight grip.

"Stay still." The Admin. said before approaching her slowly. I stepped up.

"Hey, whoa there! We don't need to do this," I defended, holding her back.

"If you do not move within the next ten seconds I will make sure that you will be the first to die in every battle from now on!" I gave her a serious look.

"Not if you're going to hurt them."

I said, pointing towards Pyro. She scowled and shoved me so hard that I couldn't even resist the impact.

"No!" Medic warned and slapped away he Admin's hand. She used her other hand to yank off Pyro's mask.

Those who didn't know her real identity gasped. She kept her head down and let her dirty red hair glow. I could see tears falling from her eyes, and her body glowed a yellowish tone.

"I knew it," the Administrator said. "You're not human. You're a monster in a human's body. I am disappointed..."she turned around and started to leave the building. Keira, who's head was still facing the ground, was now a bright yellow, almost white. She was like a star about to blow up.

And before I knew it, she did.

All I saw was the Administrator fall to the ground, as well as everybody else. Everyone, except me.

She turned around and looked at me, stepping over the unconscious bodies on the ground.

"Hey," I said.

"Hello to you to," she responded, rather strangely.

I felt a rush of adrenaline surge through me.

"So this is your 'plan'? To keep the others revolving around you?! Look what it's done!" I said, motioning with my hands.

"I thought if I did things out of the ordinary they'd be intimidated and avoid me!" She paused. "That didn't work..." I sighed and lowered my voice so I could deal with this girl.

"It's not working."

"I know that!" She nearly screamed. "I don't know what to do. I just need to burn everything and find out myself..." She touched the wall and watched as it chipped away from the overheat.

"You can start over." I said. She clenched her fist and looked at me.

"What?"

"I said that you can start over. You know, be the person you were when you got here a year ago or whatever."

"I guess that's what I need to do," she said. She nudged the unconscious Administrator with her foot. Without looking at me, she spoke. "That's why they won't remember me when they wake up."

I froze.

"I mean, they'll know I'm on the team and everything, but it's just like wiping out their memory of me." I was speechless. Was she one step ahead of me, or getting herself into the same mess all over again?

"It's worth a try."

Pyro worked her fire magic and awoke the team and the Administrator. She came to and explained what we were going to do for the day.

Apparently our worst enemy, the green team, has learned how to skydive. She said that they could "ambush" us from above when we least expect it. I didn't listen to the rest of that crap, but skydiving did sound a bit fun. Everyone got ready and headed out to the entrance of the building, where a dingy helicopter was waiting for us.

As we crammed into the plane, I saw that Ms. Pauling was operating it. Man, I hope she knew what she was doin'. Not to mention that Heavy took up half of the space and almost killed me by suffocation!

"Alright!" The Admin. said once we were in the air.

"All you have to do is have your parachute ready at all times!" She yelled over the wind. "Do you see those giant red dots way down there? That's where you need to land to avoid death or getting hurt! Got it? Good! Heavy, go first!"

The wind pierced my ears as I moved to let him by. He seemed scared, but ready.

"Here I coooooommmmmeeeee!" He shouted as he jumped off. My jaw dropped open. What the hell was I about to do?

"Medic! Go!" The Admin. hollered.

"May I take someone?" He asked.

"Make it quick!" She responded. Medic snatched Soldier from his seat and leaped off of the plane.

"Maaaggggooooottttttt!" I heard Soldier scream.

"Spy! Your turn!"

For some reason, he laughed quietly and smirked.

"My pleasure." He jumped calmly as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

"Scout!" She was now yelling at the top of her lungs because the wind was louder.

"What?" I said fearfully.

"Go go! Quickly!" She said. Before I knew it, I clumsily had half-slipped, half-slid over the edge of the helicopter.

The feeling was unusual, but great. The wind slapped my face, and I felt like nothing could hurt me. As I spread out my arms and legs, I looked down and saw Heavy and the others nearing the target zone. My shirt wouldn't stay down, but I didn't care. The sun shined brightly and made the scene even better. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my back. I was startled, but I figured it was just someone that had jumped after me.

And so, I was right.

Pyro sailed a little below me and waved. I waved back and straightened my position. She pointed upwards and as best as I could, I looked in that direction.

"Woooooooooooooo!" I heard Engineer cheer as he spun through the air. I laughed and did the same. And before we knew it, everybody was spinning until we landed on the drop point. I didn't release my parachute as early as I should of, so my landing was quite a bit rough. As I tried to stand up, I lost my balance and fell. The same happened with Pyro.

"Ha! Be careful leetle man!" Heavy laughed. A couple minutes later, everyone had adjusted themselves and met the Administrator a short ways away.

"Oh my goodness, zhat was amazing!" Medic said. Soldier's face looked stunned like he had just saw his mom naked.

"Doctors." He said plainly.

Ms. Pauling ran up to us from what looked like a rest station.

"Well? Wasn't that fun?!" She said gleefully. Medic would make a good match for her, in my opinion.

"Yes, yes it was indeed enjoyable." The Admin. interrupted, "but do not forget that the brackets are next week! Pack your things starting tomorrow so we can leave that night!"

I totally forgot that we had to leave our normal living spaces for the brackets. We did this towards the end of every war season, so I was used to it. I even remember the one from last year. After that there's a ceremony that our parents and relatives can come to and watch the team receive their medals of honor. I couldn't wait.

"Yeah, yeah we got it." I told the Admin. She gave me an annoyed glare as Ms. Pauling laughed.

"Just be ready to fight like you've never fought before, gentlemen."

**Okay, I realize that there's a HUGE time break between the brackets and the last time I mentioned them, which might mess up the story a little. The next chapter will probably introduce you to them, and a cliffhanger too! :D anyone ship Medic and Ms. Pauling? I do! R and R!**


End file.
